This week on AI with Kai: Wes Coody, founder and president of C2 Wealth Strategies in Mobile, Alabama, and president of NAIFA's Alabama chapter, walks through the real AI stack running underneath a modern financial advisory practice. That's a meeting note-taker that gave the firm back 12 to 15 hours a week, a sentiment tool that scans Reddit and Google for what clients are actually worried about, a tax planning tool that turns a return into a two-page action plan, and an estate planning tool that reads a trust and builds the family tree for you. Plus: GPT-5.6 lands with government oversight, why the model you default to might be burning your usage cap for no reason, and the first-3-seconds rule that's quietly deciding which of our own YouTube Shorts take off. Timestamps • 0:00 — Cold open: "We were saving 12 to 15 hours a week" • 1:00 — Welcome, the free guide, and an AI elephant impression • 2:00 — Tim's Take: what our own Shorts data revealed • 4:00 — The Rundown: GPT-5.6 arrives, and how AI model tiers work • 8:00 — The Spotlight: Wes Coody, C2 Wealth Strategies • 20:00 — The Playbook: retiring the notepad with AI voice recorders • 23:00 — Wrap-up and where to find the show What you'll learn • Why C2 Wealth Strategies stopped sending two advisors to every meeting once their AI note-taker proved it captured more than a human ever would • How compliance actually works when a broker-dealer has to vet every AI tool before an advisor can touch it • Why tax planning that used to cost a client $4,000 to $6,000 is becoming affordable for everyday households, not just the ultra-wealthy • The three phases of every advisor-client meeting (prepare, conduct, follow-up) and where AI fits into each one • Why the first three seconds of a YouTube Short, not the title or post time, decide whether it gets distributed • What GPT-5.6's government review process signals about where frontier AI regulation is headed Tools mentioned Zocks — the AI meeting note-taker that gave Wes's team 12 to 15 hours back a week, vetted and approved by their broker-dealer, Cambridge Investment Research AdvisorListen — scans Reddit, Bluesky, and Google daily for client sentiment around financial services Holistiplan — turns an uploaded tax return into a two-page tax planning summary Wealth.com — reads uploaded wills and trusts and extracts beneficiaries, grantors, and a full family tree Granola — Kai's pick for an AI meeting recorder (also mentioned: Fathom, Zoom AI Companion, Microsoft Copilot) Guest Wes Coody is founder and president of C2 Wealth Strategies in Mobile, Alabama, and president of the Alabama chapter of NAIFA (National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors). Now in his 22nd year as a financial advisor, he built C2 Wealth Strategies alongside C2 Insurance Group, C2 Accounting and Tax, and C2 Network Holdings. Quote "No more taking notes in meetings. We could be present, we could listen. And quite frankly, it gets a lot more details than we would ever take down on a notepad." — Wes Coody, on the moment his team realized what their AI note-taker actually saved them This episode is supported by Harris Vacations — ourgulfshoresvacation.com Get more from AI with Kai Grab the free guide, "AI Wins You Can Start This Week," at aiwithkai.com/#get-guide. New episodes weekly. Follow the show wherever you listen, and catch golf-cart-format Shorts every week on YouTube. Questions or guest ideas: hello@aiwithkai.com.
