Envestnet's Jud Bergman on the Kasparov Principle

Kasparov, Bergman reported, pioneered a new type of chess after he was defeated by Deep Blue, the IBM supercomputer, in 1997. "I call it the Kasparov principle," Bergman related, meaning, as in chess matches, that "humans plus machines deliver better outcomes" than either alone. "Supercomputers on their own don't make mistakes," Bergman said, but they also can't make "brilliant moves; the [human] grandmasters make them."

It is those "brilliant moves that separate the greats from the not-so-greats," Bergman said. The message? "If an advisor can eliminate mistakes" by using expert intelligent systems in advising clients, "think of the value he's adding."

So rather than an either/or proposition, humans and technology can be a "symbiotic relationship" that allows advisors to "minimize mistakes on routine tasks" while also minimizing the time spent on those tasks, allowing the advisor to focus on "financial planning, coaching, tax management" and other high-end tasks. "The best technology," argued Bergman, "allows the advisor to be more human."

— Read All For One: Integration Driving Envestnet's New Focus on ThinkAdvisor.