Big Shift Season 2: Single Customer View and Agentic AI in advice and wealth
The Big Shift returns this autumn for a second season. Our webinar series for the advice and wealth management sector runs two sessions this year rather than six, with a narrower focus on Single Customer View and realising Agentic AI value.
Why Single Customer View and Agentic AI?
Season 1 of the Big Shift mapped the forces reshaping advice and wealth, from data strategy and workforce skills through to AI adoption and the technology stack underneath. Articles from each session are linked at the end of this article, and they are worth a read as context for what follows.
What emerged across those conversations is that most of these shifts, however different in origin, eventually run into the same layer: the operating model. That is where firms are working through the most difficult trade-offs around ownership, governance, sequencing and accountability, and where they must contend with the reality of running the business once change has been delivered. It is also where change programmes most often stall, when the operating model has not kept pace with the ambition sitting above it.
Season 2 goes deeper into the two areas where that gap is widest. Single Customer View has moved from a data ambition to a live regulatory and commercial pressure. With Agentic AI, the pressure is to turn early pilots into value across the business, and to shape how the firm operates for the next wave of technology. The sections below unpack each in turn.
Session 1: Addressing the Single Customer View Challenge
Poppy Achilles hosts both sessions this year, joined by Charlie Symonds across the season and by guest speaker Stuart Coleman from Tetmon for Session 1. On Wednesday 7 October, 12:30 to 13:30 BST, they take on Single Customer View, with a live demonstration of decentralised data in practice.
Single Customer View is one of the clearest places the operating model gap shows up commercially. The ambition is familiar, one accurate live view of the client across every product, interaction and system. The reality in most firms is still fragments, held across product systems, CRM, adviser notes, third-party platforms and legacy books that were never designed to speak to each other.
That fragmented reality carries a significant cost. Advisers spend time piecing together context held in different places, while operations teams are still reconciling records manually. Cross-sell opportunities go unnoticed when the picture is incomplete, and propositions get built on what happens to be visible in the moment. Over time, a partial view of the client shows up in the service they receive and can gradually erode trust in the firm, which is something regulators are increasingly alert to.
For many firms, this has been approached as a large data programme, with the operating model considered further down the line. Who owns the view, and how the business uses it once it exists, are what determine whether the investment pays back.
What has changed is what is now viable. A Single Customer View no longer has to mean a multi-year platform consolidation or a full data warehouse rebuild. Approaches now exist that provide a single view of data where it already sits, without duplicating it or moving it out of the systems that hold it. That reopens the question for firms who had written it off as too large to take on. Session 1 will draw on recent independent research from the Open Data Institute and set it against the wider questions of data control and sovereignty facing wealth and pensions.
Session 2: Taking Advantage of Agentic AI
Session 2 turns to Agentic AI on Wednesday 18 November, 12:30 to 13:30 GMT.
Agentic AI is arriving faster than most firms have had time to form a view on. For clarity, the working definition of Agentic AI is software that carries out work itself, making decisions within guardrails a firm sets. For example, this could be client onboarding handled from start to finish, or a portfolio monitored with the agent flagging what needs attention.
The potential value is considerable. Work that currently passes between teams and systems can be completed in a single flow, giving advisers more time with clients and allowing the firm to grow its service without growing its cost base at the same rate.
However, few firms are seeing that value yet. The pattern in advice and wealth is following the wider industry, with pilots stalling or needing so much supervision that the time saved is lost. The tools themselves are rarely the barrier. What holds firms back is the operating model around the agent.
Accountability and governance are what turn a pilot into something the business can rely on. Firms treating Agentic AI as a technology decision tend to move quickly, then slow down when those issues catch up with them. Those treating it as an operating model decision move more deliberately at the outset but scale with more confidence once the agent is live, because decision rights and oversight are already in place.
This thinking sits inside Organisation Rewired, our programme for building AI-ready operating models. Session 2 will explore where Agentic AI can create value for firms, and what the business needs in place to realise it at scale and keep pace with what comes next.
Join us for Season 2
Different as they look, Single Customer View and Agentic AI rest on the same foundations. Data that can be trusted, and an operating model that can act on it responsibly. Season 2 is a peer-to-peer space to explore what that looks like across advice and wealth, alongside others working through the same questions in their own firms.
Save your seat below. One sign-up covers both sessions, and there will be time in each hour to bring your own questions to the conversation.
Session 1: Addressing the Single Customer View Challenge
Wednesday 7 October 2026, 12:30 to 13:30 BSTPoppy Achilles, Charlie Symonds and guest speaker Stuart Coleman from Tetmon, with a live demonstration of decentralised data in practice.
Session 2: Taking Advantage of Agentic AI Wednesday 18 November 2026, 12:30 to 13:30 GMTPoppy Achilles and Charlie Symonds.
FAQs
What is The Big Shift?
The Big Shift is a webinar series run by Alirity for the advice and wealth management sector. Each season focuses on key challenges facing the industry; Season 2 covers Single Customer View and Agentic AI.
Who is The Big Shift for?
The Big Shift is designed for leaders and practitioners working in advice and wealth management. That includes executives, transformation and change leads, heads of data, technology and operations, and advisers looking to understand the shifts reshaping the sector.
When are the Season 2 sessions?
Session 1 runs on Wednesday 7 October 2026, 12:30 to 13:30 BST, on Single Customer View. Session 2 runs on Wednesday 18 November 2026, 12:30 to 13:30 GMT, on Agentic AI.
Where are the sessions held?
Both sessions are held online. Joining details are shared with registered attendees ahead of each session. You can register here: The Big Shift Season 2 Registration
Is there a cost to attend?
No. The Big Shift Season 2 is free to attend for anyone working in the advice and wealth management sector.
What is a Single Customer View?
A Single Customer View is one accurate, live record of a client held across every product, adviser interaction and system in a firm. It brings together data that would otherwise sit in different platforms, so the firm can act on a complete picture of the client.
What is agentic AI?
Agentic AI is software that carries out work itself, makes decisions within guardrails a user or organisation sets, and completes a task end-to-end. It differs from earlier forms of AI in that it is designed to act on a task, not just to generate an output for someone else to act on.
How do I sign up for Season 2 of The Big Shift?
You can sign up for Season 2 here. One sign-up covers both sessions, and joining details will follow once you have registered.
Are the sessions recorded?
Yes. Each session is recorded and shared with registered attendees only. The Big Shift is a peer-to-peer space, and contributions are treated as confidential to the group. Any insights used in follow-up marketing are anonymised, and the recording itself is not published.
What other events does Alirity run?
The Big Shift is our current event series, with more planned over the coming months. To hear about upcoming events, follow Alirity on LinkedIn.
