The Oasis Group Founder and CEO John O'Connell began his career as a developer at Merrill Lynch during the second AI winter — giving him a historical vantage point on AI that most of today's advocates simply do not have. Over more than 30 years spanning Merrill Lynch, KPMG, and eight years in North American leadership at Oracle, he has developed a practitioner's understanding of both financial services and enterprise technology that now defines his approach to AI adoption in wealth management. John created the AI WealthTech Map — the industry's most comprehensive intelligence resource on AI-first firms serving wealth management, now tracking 109-plus firms across eight workflow-aligned categories, with personal platform reviews completed for more than 90 of them.