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By Jen McKay, Director at Linktank
Something exciting - and a little unsettling - has shifted in the background hum of working life.
The old system that shaped careers, institutions, and professional norms no longer feels as stable. We are watching, in real time, a financial world built for a narrow idea of a “normal” human mind trying to absorb artificial intelligence, climate risk, political volatility, and an unprecedented concentration of technological power.
At the same time, neurodivergence has moved further into public conversation. Labels like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia have historically sat at the margins of professional life -filed under accommodation, wellbeing, or disability.
Yet when we look at the skills and ways of thinking that financial services will need in the next chapter of human history, a confronting idea emerges:
The future requires minds that are spiky, not smooth.
It needs people who can see systems, hold complexity, question assumptions, sense ethical risk, and remain curious in the midst of change. In many cases, these are strengths often associated with neurodivergent profiles.
And yet, the system we’ve inherited has spent decades devaluing, pathologising, and burning out exactly these kinds of minds.
If we are serious about the future of work in an AI-powered world -especially in financial planning and advice - we need to take a hard look at who our operating model was built for, who it has excluded, and who it will need next.
How We Designed for a Narrow “Normal”
Neurodivergent people are not new. What is relatively new is the idea of a statistically “normal” mind - and the systems built around it.
Industrialisation introduced factories, time clocks, and standardised roles. Emerging sciences like statistics and psychiatry reinforced concepts such as normal distribution, deviation, and disorder.
From this, a particular silhouette of the “ideal worker” emerged:
- Predictably reliable and punctual
- Comfortable with noise, structure, and repetition
- Able to sit for long periods and maintain output
- Socially fluent - but not too expressive
- Respectful of hierarchy and systems
Financial services adopted and refined this model.
The ideal professional became someone who could handle long hours, dense regulation, constant information flow, and high-pressure client interactions—while maintaining a polished, controlled presence.
Even consumers were designed with the same assumptions. Advice processes and products often assume that clients:
- Have stable risk preferences
- Behave predictably
- Engage consistently
- Can process complex language and paperwork
Against this backdrop, many neurodivergent traits were reframed as deficits:
- Sensory sensitivity → performance issue
- Non-linear thinking → distraction
- Direct communication → lack of soft skills
- Deep, focused interests → “too narrow”
Unless, of course, those traits happened to drive profit.
AI Arrives in an Already Fragile System
Into this tightly structured environment, AI has arrived - fast.
In South Africa’s advice market, Linktank’s 2026 AI and Innovation Trends Report found that:
- 40.7% of advice businesses were using AI by 2025
- 96.8% are either using AI or planning to
- Only 3.3% report no interest
This is no longer emerging - it’s embedded.
AI is already assisting with:
- Data gathering, document analysis, and fact-finding
- Financial modelling and scenario generation
- Risk detection, fraud alerts, and anomaly spotting
- KYC, due diligence, and regulatory reporting
- Client profiling and personalised communication
Crucially, these changes are reshaping not just advisers, but product, compliance, operations, risk, and distribution across the entire value chain.
Right now, much of AI’s impact is clustered around productivity:
- Meeting summarisation
- Note-taking
- Report generation
- Workflow automation
- Data cleansing
More advanced capabilities - like portfolio optimisation and full plan generation - are still largely on 12–24 month roadmaps.
That gives the industry a narrow but critical window:
We still get to decide what AI-enabled advice should look like - before it becomes fixed.
As AI Scales the Standard, the Non-Standard Becomes Valuable
Most thoughtful industry perspectives agree on one thing:
AI will absorb routine, repeatable work and elevate baseline technical capability.
What it will not remove is the need for:
- Human judgement
- Human ethics
- Human context
- Human relationship
We still need people who can:
- Interpret models in context
- Sense when a technically correct answer is ethically wrong
- Understand system-wide consequences
As AI scales what is standardised…
The value of what is non-standard rises.
The Capabilities the Next Era Demands
If we look at the direction of financial services, a new constellation of human capabilities is emerging:
Systems Thinking & Integrative Reasoning
The ability to see how decisions ripple across interconnected systems—linking product, client behaviour, regulation, staff experience, and trust.
Critical & Counter-Cultural Thinking
The courage to question inherited assumptions—even when they’ve been rewarded.
This includes challenging:
- Growth-at-all-costs thinking
- Legacy revenue models
- Short-term performance metrics
- Blind automation of outdated processes
Deep Focus & Pattern Recognition
The ability to sustain attention and identify signals others miss—especially in data-rich, high-noise environments.
Ethical Sensitivity
A sharpened awareness of fairness, bias, and unintended consequences.
In an AI-enabled world, this is no longer optional—it’s foundational.
Curiosity & Cognitive Flexibility
The ability to learn, unlearn, and adapt continuously - remaining open to entirely new ways of thinking.
A Quiet Reframe
This is not about romanticising neurodivergence.
Nor is it about suggesting one way of thinking is superior.
It is about recognising that:
The environment has changed - and the definition of valuable thinking is changing with it.
For too long, financial services has optimised for uniformity.
The next phase will require range.
Where This Leaves Us
If we continue designing firms and systems around a single dominant profile, we risk:
- Missing critical risks
- Over-trusting automated outputs
- Designing for the “average” client who doesn’t exist
- Burning out the minds we need most
But if we widen our definition of capability, we unlock something powerful:
Resilience, creativity, and better decision-making in a complex world.
Final Thought
The future of financial services will not be decided by technology alone.
It will be shaped by which human minds we choose to include - and which ones we continue to overlook.
About the Author
Jen McKay is a Director at Linktank, working at the intersection of financial services, technology, and advisory strategy. Her work focuses on how emerging trends - including AI, behavioural thinking, and system design - are reshaping the future of advice and client engagement.