If it is too tech, then you are too old
If it is too loud, then you are too old. Ever heard that one-liner? If you are among my readership, then you probably have. From my experience, the phrase is subjectively true. But while you argue back and forth on the validity, tweaking the dial on your car or home stereo, there is another age-related litmus test uploading. This time, dear reader, you are too old if it feels too tech.
The future shock is upon us
The ‘future shock’ that Alvin Toffler used to title his 1970 best-seller is well and truly upon us. As he warned more than 50 years ago, the speed of change has become so rapid that individuals, institutions and countries are struggling to keep up. This non-fiction title cropped up twice during presentations this week, in this context shared by consultant and keynote speaker Nick Binedell, at the opening of the 2026 Sanlam Benchmark report launch. The benchmark is all about employee benefits and retirement; Binedell was about AI and extraordinary change.
“You have this enormous responsibility of advising in a world of very rapid change, and you are subject to that change yourself,” Binedell said to a hybrid audience of mostly financial adviser types. He reminded attendees that their client-facing roles went beyond offering technical financial advice to being psychologists or sociologists capable of explaining the impact of the unfolding AI era. More importantly, those whose “memories were stronger than their vision” might face challenges adapting to the emerging world.
In true narrative style, the presenter used the three scenarios you might encounter when trying to run up a ‘down’ escalator to frame the ‘response to change’ dilemma. Option one is to outpace the moving stairs, avoid any other obstacles or passengers, and make it to your destination. Option two drops you into a hamster-in-a-wheel nightmare wherein you exhaust your mental and physical strength just to keep up with the escalator, stuck in a sort of limbo. And the third option, in which you move too slowly or simply run out of steam, sends you back to your starting point, far worse for wear.
This escalator imagery moves the debate away from ‘running’ flat-out to keep up with AI and technology into lived experience. With a few small tweaks, you can reframe the story around how advisers need to respond to meet clients’ needs in an ever-evolving financial advice landscape. Advisers and clients face similar threats in that the assumptions that informed today’s financial plan may not hold in three or five years, let alone all the way until a planned retirement date up to 40 years in the future.
World history in 60 seconds or so
AI and other technological innovations are just the latest part of the hegemonic change that global citizens have dealt with since the end of the Second World War. Binedell charged through a history lesson that spanned the Cold War; the demise of the USSR; the rise of the United States; the post-Mao resurgence of China; the establishment of the European Union; the Russia-Ukraine War; and finally, India eyeing economic superpower status. “What an extraordinary time to be alive,” he enthused.
Determining which of China, India, Russia or some other hopeful might unseat the incumbent US was framed in demographics. The presenter noted that while there were close to nine billion people on the planet, fertility rates were in sharp decline everywhere, meaning a narrowing base of young people. At the same time, global citizens were forecast to live 30 years longer than their grandparents. This fact is not lost on financial advisers who have been told for decades that their clients will have to save more for retirement, or simply work for longer. “People are living longer, and they are going to have to work for longer,” Binedell said.
At first glance the challenge is how to help your clients navigate the ‘too old for tech’ framing offered up in the opening paragraphs of this piece. But after some thought, the real issue centres on whether your clients, especially in the run-up to retirement, are adaptable and flexible enough for what the coming decade might bring. AI has become yesterday’s buzzword, replaced by scores of agentic AI supervisors and their armies of AI agents that stand ready for an outright assault on traditional blue- and white-collar jobs. The big question: How does that financial plan stand up to career obsolescence?
The old equation is looking rusty
This part of the presentation really landed with your writer, and will likely resonate with many who hear it. Why? Because the core numbers used in financial planning are more dynamic than ever. In the past, you could plug in inflation, return expectations and mortality statistics and produce a simple ‘how much and how often’ answer to saving enough for retirement, including where that money should be allocated. More importantly, you had reasonable confidence in a career for life.
AI is going to force each of us to reframe financial planning in the context of remaining economically relevant. Forget the economics, said Binedell. “You need to think about how AI adoption changes who we are; the way we work; and the way we live.” He spoke about the mixed feelings arising from technology change that can be both disturbing and empowering. For an added layer of complexity, the financial advice process is affected by climate change; conflict, such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the current Middle East crisis; and demographic shifts, as seen in Africa’s rising youth population.
“We are living in a very abstract world where it is increasingly hard to define reality,” Binedell said. He added that education would have to change, and that those employed in countless old-world jobs would have to find ways to unlearn and relearn to stay relevant. Reminiscing on South Africa’s somewhat forgotten ‘rainbow nation’ construct, the presenter reminded the audience that the country was a melting pot of culture and identity that was likely to become more complex over the coming years.
Data and a thorough understanding of the financial advice discipline were described as “only a portion” of what today’s advice professionals needed to bring to the table. Those in the audience were encouraged to challenge assumptions in the context of yesterday’s assumptions changing very, very quickly. Success requires abandoning naivety for knowledge and replacing your victim mentality with an opportunity mindset. Wrapping his talk with some four-quadrant thinking, Binedell said one could charge the AI frontlines as a naive optimist; a naive pessimist; a knowledgeable pessimist; or a knowledgeable optimist.
Occupying the ‘knowledgeable optimist’ space
“The people who have built South Africa, and will continue to build it and make it what we promised ourselves, will be in that knowledgeable optimist space,” he concluded. And that, dear reader, is probably the appropriate response to our foundational fear of being left behind. Blinkers did not help carthorses weather the Industrial Revolution; and turning a blind eye to generative AI, AI agents and agentic AI will yield prosperity into the 2030s.
Each of us must decide whether we surrender to change, or keep adapting and learning fast enough to remain relevant. If it feels too tech, you will have to find ways to become less old in your thinking.
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