AI is making significant improvements in the investment industry, and these advancements have prompted many to speculate about its eventual ability to completely dominate the field. But how long until clever machines start making all of our financial decisions? In this post, we’ll look at when AI will take over the investment sector and what that means for investors.

First, consider how far AI has progressed in recent years. Citadel Securities’ algorithmic trading program outperformed humans on stock trades by 18% in 2017, indicating that even sophisticated strategies can be implemented with surprising precision and speed utilizing AI-based algorithms. This technology has advanced at a quick pace, and experts believe that AI-powered trading bots will soon outperform human traders in terms of efficiency and accuracy.

Of course, smart algorithms alone aren’t enough to completely dominate the investment sector; there are still a lot of human factors at play. Human experience is still required when it comes to personalizing portfolios or investing in new markets, from regulatory compliance to recognizing investor emotion and risk tolerance. However, as natural language processing (NLP) and other areas of artificial intelligence technology advance, computers may soon have access to large amounts of data that can provide insights into market trends and consumer attitudes that humans would otherwise be unable to access.

So, how long before AI takes over the entire investment process? Some believe that full automation might take as little as five years, although there are concerns that this timescale is unrealistic owing to factors such as legislative limits or issues with machine learning bias. Even if these concerns can be resolved rapidly, the transition time from totally manual investments to complete automation will most likely take several years due to hardware limits or programming challenges.

Whatever the exact timing is—whether it’s five or ten years—it’s apparent that robotic fund managers will eventually take over our financial portfolios. This means that investors must begin familiarizing themselves with AI systems today in order to understand how they work and ensure that their money are managed appropriately if automated trading becomes prevalent. Furthermore, those that get on board early may get a competitive advantage due to their knowledge with this new technology, implying that now may be a better time than ever for investors searching for a competitive advantage!

To summarize, while it’s unclear how soon automated fund managers will rule the investment world—whether it’s in five years or more—it’s safe to conclude that this transformation is coming sooner rather than later. Those who invest now should begin planning for a future in which intelligent robots handle the majority of their financial decisions if they want to stay ahead of the game!