Wealthtech firm SS&C, the owner of Black Diamond portfolio management and reporting software, said today that it has added artificial intelligence enhancements to the Black Diamond platform, which has for years been widely used among financial advisors.
Black Diamond AI will include an AI assistant within its workflows, allowing advisors to ask it questions to help them navigate the system, as well as unearth client data and portfolio stats. The firm says the AI will allow advisors to access this data with natural language prompts.
“Advisors can ask questions about client and business data in plain English and receive immediate answers without searching across multiple reports or screens,” the SS&C said in a press release. The Black Diamond interface is known for its dashboard with interactive tiles that allow users to parse portfolios through style categories and performance metrics.
The firm said that advisors can also access and use Black Diamond data within their enterprise AI platform of choice using a model context protocol (a translator that allows artificial intelligence to peer into data collections without recreating the wheel with a new integration each time). The idea is to be able to integrate Black Diamond data with information from other sources.
The Black Diamond Assist feature will help users navigate the platform and answer while the Black Diamond Insight function will allow advisors to analyze data to pull out relevant information. This includes advisors’ ability to create relationship summaries, report and statements summaries, planning summaries and trade analysis, SS&C said.
“Rather than requiring advisors to toggle between separate AI tools and systems, Black Diamond AI is designed to help firms surface client insights, query their data in plain English and take action within their existing technology environment, while maintaining the necessary governance and oversight,” the company said.
“AI should help advisors make faster, more informed decisions while simplifying day-to-day operations,” said Steve Leivent, senior vice president and co-head of SS&C Wealth & Investment Technologies. “Black Diamond AI is how our AI strategy shows up for wealth advisors and is embedded where advisors do the work. Firms turn information into action while maintaining the trust and governance their clients expect.”
Black Diamond was founded in 2003 by entrepreneur Reed Colley in 2003 (after founding other companies, he joined Orion last year as president of technology). It was later purchased by Advent Software in 2011, which was bought by SS&C Technologies in 2015.
SS&C said the new effort is part of its broader AI strategy. In April, the company introduced WorkHQ, an AI orchestration platform for advisors and operations teams to use across an enterprise.
“Diamond AI is part of SS&C’s broader AI strategy, built on the SS&C AI Gateway governance platform and designed to interoperate with SS&C WorkHQ,” the firm said in its press release.