# BMO (U.S.): Wealth management AI Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us/wealth-management-ai Last updated: Oct 31, 2026 *Part of the [BMO (U.S.) AI strategy profile](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us).* ## How does BMO use AI in wealth management? BMO's wealth AI on the record is mostly Canadian and aimed at advisers' time. Deland Kamanga, group head of BMO Wealth Management, said in July 2026 that 'Across Wealth, AI tools are delivering more than 400,000 assisted hours a year', that Nesbitt Burns advisor teams are freeing up 'roughly one full working day per month', and that BMO is targeting 'two-times capacity for account opening'. The tools are knowledge assistants: Nexa answers Private Wealth teams' questions on products, policies, compliance and onboarding, and Rovr, built in-house for insurance advisers, is available to 100% of them and has supported over 10,000 inquiries; BMO Insurance added RovrAI in 2026. Clients see AI in two places: BMO InvestorLine's AI News and Market Summaries, covering Canadian and U.S. markets, launched for all adviceDirect and self-directed clients in May 2026, and BMO Insurance's SmartDecision, which gives real-time life underwriting decisions up to $5 million. Kamanga's line is that 'AI is not about replacing human advice'. The U.S. record is thin: on BMO Wealth Management's April 30, 2026 podcast, BMO Private Bank's Bill Kavanaugh warned clients that 'the tool isn't accountable, we are', and U.S. personal and business banking forecasts nearly $4 billion of assets referred to wealth partners in 2026. BMO has not said which of these tools its U.S. wealth teams use. ([BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most), [BMO AI Hub](https://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/bmo-leaders-explore-ais-next-frontier-at-nrth-festival-2026), [BMO](https://bmo.com/en-ca/main/about-bmo/news-insights/blog/bmo-investorline-introduces-ai-news-and-market-summaries-in-canada), [CNW via FT Markets](https://markets.ft.com/data/announce/detail?dockey=600-202607090730CANADANWCANADAPR_C9043-1), [BMO AI Hub](https://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/ai-and-the-future-of-personalized-advice), [BMO Wealth Management (U.S.)](https://uswealth.bmo.com/media/filer_public/67/85/67857570-1dc6-48f3-a461-b8e4a0605669/2026-04-30_btp_-_ais_imp_act_on_individuals_and_their_financial_lives_vs2.pdf), [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/2026-the-most-powerful-women-in-banking-12-carolyn-booth-bmo)) ## Which AI tools does BMO Wealth Management use, and who uses them? From BMO's AI Hub stories, BMO releases and the BMO Insurance announcement. Most are described for Canadian teams. | Tool | What it does | Who uses it | Date | Sources | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Nexa | Knowledge assistant answering natural-language questions on products, policies, compliance, operational processes, onboarding and account administration | Private Wealth teams | July 27, 2026 | [BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most) | | Rovr | AI-powered digital assistant developed in-house, with real-time access to policy, process and underwriting intelligence; first-to-market in Canada; over 10,000 advisor inquiries | 100% of Insurance advisors | July 27, 2026 | [BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most) | | RovrAI | Launched in 2026 to streamline information access and give advisors 24/7 support during client conversations | BMO Insurance advisors | September 29, 2026 | [BMO AI Hub](https://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/bmo-leaders-explore-ais-next-frontier-at-nrth-festival-2026) | | SmartDecision | Fully digital life-insurance application with real-time underwriting decisions from advanced analytics, predictive modelling and AI-enhanced capabilities, up to $5 million across Term Life, Universal Life and Whole Life | BMO Insurance clients and advisors | July 9, 2026 | [CNW via FT Markets](https://markets.ft.com/data/announce/detail?dockey=600-202607090730CANADANWCANADAPR_C9043-1) | | AI News and Market Summaries | Continuously refreshed AI summaries covering Canadian and U.S. markets, plus stock-specific updates | All adviceDirect and self-directed InvestorLine clients | May 28, 2026 | [BMO](https://bmo.com/en-ca/main/about-bmo/news-insights/blog/bmo-investorline-introduces-ai-news-and-market-summaries-in-canada) | | Advisor insights | AI analyzes patterns, signals and changing client circumstances so advisors can anticipate needs, drawing on the client's wider relationship through BMO's One Client approach | BMO Wealth Management advisors | July 27, 2026 | [BMO AI Hub](https://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/ai-and-the-future-of-personalized-advice) | ## What results has BMO reported from AI in wealth management? | Measure | Value | Who said it | Date | Sources | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Assisted hours across Wealth | More than 400,000 a year | Deland Kamanga, group head, BMO Wealth Management | July 27, 2026 | [BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most) | | Nesbitt Burns advisor teams | Roughly one full working day per month freed up | Deland Kamanga | July 27, 2026 | [BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most) | | Account opening | Targeting two-times capacity and material reductions in manual processing in key areas | Deland Kamanga | July 27, 2026 | [BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most) | | Wealth referrals from U.S. branches | Nearly $4 billion in assets referred to wealth partners forecast for the year (a referral figure, not an AI one) | Anthony Hudson, U.S. personal and business banking, per American Banker | October 1, 2026 | [American Banker](https://americanbanker.com/news/2026-the-most-powerful-women-in-banking-12-carolyn-booth-bmo) | ## How does BMO frame AI in advice, and what applies to its U.S. wealth business? Kamanga frames AI as capacity, not replacement: 'AI is not about replacing human advice,' and 'Trust and relationships absolutely remain central to what we do.' On the operating model he said: 'We simplify and reengineer to recreate capacity. We then reinvest that capacity into growth, technology and better outcomes.' ([BMO AI Hub](https://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/ai-and-the-future-of-personalized-advice), [BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most)) Lovell Hodge, head of AI for BMO Wealth, told the Nrth Festival in September 2026 that progress will come from specialized, continuous-learning systems rather than only from larger foundation models, and that the next generation of wealth management 'will be built on compounding intelligence'. ([BMO AI Hub](https://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/bmo-leaders-explore-ais-next-frontier-at-nrth-festival-2026)) The U.S. material is commentary rather than deployment data. On the April 30, 2026 Beyond the Portfolio podcast, Bill Kavanaugh, regional director of planning at BMO Private Bank, listed over-reliance ('If something goes wrong, the tool isn't accountable, we are'), data quality and privacy, and platform risk as risks for clients using AI, and host Pratik Patel added hallucinations. ([BMO Wealth Management (U.S.)](https://uswealth.bmo.com/media/filer_public/67/85/67857570-1dc6-48f3-a461-b8e4a0605669/2026-04-30_btp_-_ais_imp_act_on_individuals_and_their_financial_lives_vs2.pdf)) Not disclosed: whether Nexa or other wealth assistants are used by BMO's U.S. wealth teams, adoption or time-saved figures outside Canada, and any client-facing AI adviser. The InvestorLine summaries cover U.S. markets but the platform is Canadian. ([BMO AI Hub](http://ai.bmo.com/our-stories/helping-wealth-professionals-focus-on-what-matters-most), [BMO](https://bmo.com/en-ca/main/about-bmo/news-insights/blog/bmo-investorline-introduces-ai-news-and-market-summaries-in-canada)) ## What does the BMO profile record on this topic? | Date | Move | Detail | Sources | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Aug 25, 2026 | Q3 call: U.S. Banking results with AI-funded efficiency | U.S. Banking net income up 9%, ROE 9.8%, ROTCE 17.3%; expenses up 3%, largely funded by efficiency gains; SmartDecision gives insurance decisions in as little as 10 seconds against an industry 28 business days or more. | [Motley Fool (Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/bmo-bmo-q3-2026-earnings-174320317.html) | | Jul 9, 2026 | SmartDecision AI-enhanced insurance underwriting | Real-time decisions on life applications up to $5 million. | [CNW via FT Markets](https://markets.ft.com/data/announce/detail?dockey=600-202607090730CANADANWCANADAPR_C9043-1) | | Dec 4, 2025 | 2025 annual report: AI risk directive and first in-house agentic application | An AI risk directive and a Responsible AI Forum that reviews significant AI initiatives; Capital Markets launched its first in-house agentic AI application, analysing historical underwritten loans for bankers; US personal, commercial and wealth businesses unified as U.S. Banking. | [Bank of Montreal (SEC filing)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/927971/000119312525307982/d938207dex992.htm) | | Jun 5, 2025 | Aron Levine hired from Bank of America to lead BMO U.S. | US personal, business, commercial and wealth businesses restructured under one leader. | [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/en/bmo-hires-former-bofa-executive-aron-levine-lead-us-rejigs-teams-2025-06-05/) | ## Common questions ### What AI tools does BMO Wealth Management use? Knowledge assistants above all. Nexa answers Private Wealth teams' questions on products, policies, compliance and onboarding; Rovr, built in-house, gives all BMO Insurance advisors real-time policy and underwriting answers and has handled over 10,000 inquiries; RovrAI followed in 2026. Clients get InvestorLine's AI News and Market Summaries and SmartDecision life underwriting. ### How much time does AI save BMO's wealth advisors? Deland Kamanga, group head of BMO Wealth Management, said in July 2026 that AI tools across Wealth deliver more than 400,000 assisted hours a year and free roughly one full working day per month for Nesbitt Burns advisor teams. BMO is also targeting two-times capacity for account opening. These are BMO's own figures; no independent measure is published. ### Does BMO use AI with clients' investments? In information, not in decisions. Since May 28, 2026 all adviceDirect and self-directed InvestorLine clients get continuously refreshed AI News and Market Summaries covering Canadian and U.S. markets. BMO has not announced an AI system that recommends or executes trades for clients, and Kamanga says AI is not about replacing human advice. ### Does BMO's U.S. wealth business use these AI tools? BMO has not said. The tools are described for Canadian teams such as Nesbitt Burns, Private Wealth and BMO Insurance. The U.S. record consists of an April 2026 BMO Wealth Management podcast in which BMO Private Bank's Bill Kavanaugh discussed AI's risks for clients, and a U.S. branch network forecasting nearly $4 billion of wealth referrals in 2026. ### Who leads AI in BMO Wealth Management? Lovell Hodge is head of AI for BMO Wealth, Deland Kamanga is group head of BMO Wealth Management, and Silvio Stroescu, president of BMO InvestorLine, is also head of Wealth Digital First. Group-wide AI is led by Kristin Milchanowski, chief AI and quantum officer and founding director of the BMO Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence & Quantum. ## Deeper on BMO - [What is BMO's AI strategy, and how does it reach the U.S. bank?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us/ai-strategy) - [What AI research, patents and partnerships does BMO have?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us/ai-research-patents-partnerships) - [How does BMO govern AI responsibly?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us/responsible-ai) - [How is BMO training and organizing its workforce for AI?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us/ai-workforce) --- Canonical page: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us/wealth-management-ai Part of [BankingNewsAI](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/) — a free daily brief on AI in banking, an AI regulation tracker (45 authorities, 260 documents) and AI-strategy profiles of the 120 largest US banks. 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