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Wells Fargo will use 'robo-advisers' to dish out investment help

You won't need to talk to a human to get financial recommendations.

Reuters/Robert Galbraith

You won't have to go to a dedicated, tech-focused firm to get investment help from machines instead of humans. Wells Fargo has revealed that it's using SigFig's "robo-advisers" to offer guidance to investors. The sometimes troubled bank will launch a pilot program for the AI helpers sometime in the first half of 2017. It's not certain when you could see it widely available, but that will likely depend on the test's success.

The concept isn't completely new. UBS is using SigFig's service to help its human advisers, and both Bank of America as well as Morgan Stanley are developing rough equivalents. Wells Fargo may be one of the first to take this automated advice into the mainstream, however. It has over 70 million customers worldwide, so courting even a fraction of its base would put robo-advisers in front of many, many eyeballs.