One hundred and twenty companies applied for the AI Demo Drop at Future Proof Festival.
That’s the largest applicant pool in the history of both the AI Demo Drop and the Fintech Demo Drop at any Future Proof event. We share that not to pat ourselves on the back, but because it reflects something real happening in the industry.
The Kitces AdvisorTech map keeps growing for a reason. There’s genuine momentum behind AI in this space, and firms are under real pressure to figure out what belongs in their tech stack and what doesn’t. The founders who applied this year are a reflection of that moment, with real products built around specific advisor problems.
Here are the seven companies taking the stage at Future Proof Festival 2026 on Monday, September 14 for the AI Demo Drop.
Meet the Finalists
April is working to unify one of the most fragmented workflows in advisory: tax. Their integrated tax platform connects planning, preparation, and filing for wealth management firms and financial advisors through AI-powered, nationally licensed infrastructure, giving advisors a more cohesive path through a process that’s long required too many disconnected tools.
Archematch (Rainmaker): Over 70 percent of new advisors don’t make it past five years, and a 2-3% outreach response rate may be a big reason why. Their prospect matching platform uses Jungian personality archetypes and multi-model AI to help advisors connect with prospects who are more likely to be a genuine fit, before either side wastes much time finding out.
Collective: Private market participation is growing, and so is the complexity that comes with it. Their AI-powered platform brings exchange fund mechanics, tax planning, and liquidity tools together in one place for advisors and clients with pre-IPO holdings who need a clearer path from holding to outcome.
Intelligent Stories™ by Communify is approaching the scale problem in client communication, specifically how advisors can stay consistent and personal across every relationship as their book grows. The platform uses deterministic AI to turn market, portfolio, and client data into personalized narratives that educate investors and help advisors show up more meaningfully at every touchpoint.
Dispatch: Infrastructure is the kind of problem that doesn’t get headlines but sits underneath a lot of what the industry is trying to build. Their Universal Custodial Adapter establishes a common data layer across custodians, wealth technology companies, TAMPs, asset managers, broker-dealers, and RIAs, removing integration friction that’s kept agentic experiences from working in practice.
Intention.ly is helping advisors articulate who they are, something that sounds simple but tends to be slow, expensive, and generic when left to traditional processes. Their Advisor Brand Builder uses guided discovery, financial-services-specific AI, and expert marketing refinement to help advisors, RIAs, and enterprise firms develop clearer, more differentiated identities.
Pave Finance is working to close the gap between what large enterprise firms can do operationally and what’s accessible to independent RIAs. Pave Pro gives advisors the tools to run institutional-grade portfolio management in-house, AI-driven and built to serve clients across every wealth level.
Go Beyond the Stage: The RIA Playground
We’ve spent a lot of time this year listening to how the industry is actually engaging with AI, as we collect our State of AI in Wealth Management research (if you haven’t taken the survey yet, you can do so here) and in conversations with advisors and operators doing this work every day. The appetite to go deeper is real. Advisors want to see these tools working inside actual workflows.
That’s why the experience this year extends well beyond the AI Demo Drop itself. The RIA Playground is a hands-on space where you can see the technology up close and ask questions in real time. The Show & Tell stage goes deeper, with live workflow presentations and real case studies that show what these tools look like in practice and the specific problems they’re solving. And Fintech Alley gives you space to move at your own pace, exploring and engaging with the latest demos from across the industry.
Don’t Miss Out
The decisions firms make about this technology in the next 12 months will matter. Join financial advisors, wealth management executives, asset managers, fintechs, emerging startups, and media at Future Proof Festival, September 14-17, in Huntington Beach, CA.
Come ready to see the latest, build the connections that move you and your business forward, and leave with a clearer picture of what belongs in your stack.
Register now to get your ticket by August 19.
