From Franken-Stacks to AI Agents: The Annual WealthTech Outlook with Davis Janowski
For three years running, the WealthStack season has officially started the same way: with an unfiltered wealthtech outlook conversation between Shannon Rosic and Davis Janowski, senior technology editor and research analyst at Wealth Management. If 2025 was the year firms finally started using AI, 2026 is shaping up to be the year we find out whether all that tech actually pays the rent.
In this annual tech vibe check, Shannon and Davis dig into how AI notetakers quietly reshaped advisor workflows, why agentic AI and “AI operating systems” are the next wave, and what this all means for junior talent, firm structure and the future “Chief AI Officer.”
They also explore whether Franken-stacks are really dying, how niche platforms and new lead-gen tools are redefining value, and why cybersecurity and deepfakes may be the biggest underpriced risks on every CTO’s roadmap.
Key takeaways:
- What under-the-radar innovations to watch in the 2026
- How data fragmentation limits real AI adoption despite rising tech budgets
- What agent-based platforms signal about the future of advisor software
- Why critical thinking remains more valuable than pure AI skills
- How cybersecurity risks are growing faster than regulatory responses
Resources:
- Listen to WealthStack on Wealth Management
- Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe and listen to WealthStack on Spotify
Connect with Shannon Rosic:
Connect with Davis Janowski:
About Our Guest:
Davis Janowski is a New York-based technology journalist whose work spans consumer, business and the FinTech sectors.
Prior to his six years with WM, Janowski worked for Forrester Research as an analyst covering Digital Wealth Management. In edition, he has worked for two FinTech startups, Wealthfront and New York-based FeeX, Inc. (now Pontera). His work covering the advisor tech space began in 2007 when he joined InvestmentNews as the advisor industry’s first dedicated technology reporter. His start in tech journalism began as an editor with PC Magazine in 1999 where he later served as an analyst and reviewer.
His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wealth Management, Financial Planning, RIABiz, InvestmentNews, PC Magazine, numerous blogs and several books, including Technology Tools for Today’s High Margin Practice. He has also been a speaker and moderator at numerous industry conferences.
Outside his day-to-day he is a senior guide for Manhattan Kayak Company in New York City.
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