And after telling the media that the company planned to make AI an ‘external and internal priority’ last fall, Charles Schwab has spent early 2026 on a slew of initiatives like integrations and the rollout of its chatbot for client service representatives, named Schwab Knowledge Assistant.
One of the company’s most recent integrations was with Dispatch, which provides AI-enabled data management to RIAs. The partnership comes as part of a new digital account onboarding integration program at Schwab, and will allow clients to open Schwab accounts from entirely within a third-party platform for the first time.
Dispatch chief executive Rob Nance said that while legacy firms might take longer than startups to roll out tech capabilities because of compliance hurdles, integrations with companies like his enable larger custodians to become ‘more nimble’ over time by becoming a ‘central integrator’ for various advanced tools.
‘Anytime you build a multi-tool infrastructure, it takes a little bit longer,’ Nance said. ‘It’s different than Hazel, that can do everything and is vertically integrated, versus, how do we become a partner to more of the tools that exist out there, whether that be account opening or note recording. And then, how do we allow those tools to utilize our platform in the same way that Hazel is [utilizing] Altruist?’
Nance said he expects custodians to continue to consider ways to ‘build, buy, partner’ in the months ahead.
While several others told Citywire they believe it’s too early to say how the AI arms race in wealth management may ultimately shake out, Nance said it’s still incumbent on the legacy firms to continue thinking about the best ways to meet rapidly changing advisor demands.
‘I think the concern over last week is a little overblown, but I do think that if you’re Schwab or Fidelity or Pershing, they’re thinking about: How do we better integrate with the ecosystem? How do we enable people to build their own agentic workflows using the infrastructure that we have? And then, how do we do that in a compliant way?’ Nance said.