At the recent Nrth Festival 2026 (formerly Elevate Festival), Lovell Hodge, Head of AI, BMO Wealth, and Rohit Thomas, President, BMO Insurance, offered a clear view of AI’s next frontier: intelligence embedded in everyday work, improving decisions and creating value where it matters most.
For Thomas, that future is already taking shape. His ambition is bold: to evolve BMO Insurance into Canada’s most innovative insurance company, harnessing the power of AI and digital capabilities to fundamentally improve how clients experience insurance. By eliminating friction, strengthening advisor capabilities, and making every interaction easier and more meaningful, he’s helping turn that vision into reality. And the momentum is building.
The shift from bigger models to smarter systems
Drawing on nearly three decades in AI, Hodge challenged the idea that AI progress will come only from larger foundation models. He pointed instead, to a future of specialized, continuous learning systems that adapt in real time and operate closer to the people they serve.
In wealth management, that could mean purpose-built digital workers that evolve alongside clients and advisors, adapting to changing goals, market conditions and personal circumstances while protecting privacy and trust. The differentiator will not be access to AI alone, but the ability to combine it with trusted relationships, strong governance and human oversight.
"The last generation of wealth management was built on compounding capital. The next will be built on compounding intelligence, intelligence that learns locally, continuously, and efficiently, right alongside every client and every advisor."
Bringing the vision to life
Under Thomas’ leadership, BMO Insurance is not experimenting at the edges. It’s redesigning the insurance experience around speed, simplicity and human advice.
Building on that vision, Thomas focused on how AI is already creating measurable business value through AI powered tools like SmartDecision, BMO Insurance’s AI-enhanced underwriting platform that can deliver decisions within seconds for eligible applications, with coverage of up to an industry-leading $5 million across Term Life, Universal Life and Whole Life policies. It reduces traditional medical requirements for many applicants and gives advisors more time to provide advice and build trusted relationships.
In 2026, Insurance also launched RovrAI, an AI-powered capability designed to help advisors work more efficiently by streamlining information access and providing 24/7 support for faster, more informed client conversations, as part of BMO Insurance’s broader digital ecosystem. These innovations reflect how expectations are evolving, with clients looking for experiences that feel more intuitive, relevant and tailored to their needs.
"The next generation will expect advice to be personal, accessible and connected to real life. The capabilities we are building today position us to meet them there, support advisors and earn the right to grow with those clients over time. That is the next era of business. Not technology replacing people, but technology giving people the capability to do what only people can do."
Creating value through trust, intelligence and human expertise
The next phase of AI will be shaped less by standalone tools and more by intelligence woven into everyday work. As capabilities become more specialized and adaptive, organizations have new opportunities to bring expertise closer to the decisions, workflows and relationships that drive value.
The organizations that stand out will be those that translate these advances into tangible impact, turning intelligence into better experiences, stronger decisions and deeper client relationships over time.
