Morgan Stanley MS is expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across its workplace wealth management business by allowing corporate clients’ AI agents to connect directly with its stock-plan administration platforms, Shareworks and Equity Edge, according to a CNBC report. The move makes Morgan Stanley one of the first major Wall Street banks to open its systems to external AI-powered tools.
The new capability will allow AI agents to access data and insights directly from Morgan Stanley’s platforms, reducing the need for users to log in through traditional interfaces. Mark Mitchell, chief product officer of Morgan Stanley at Work, said that the firm expects corporate clients to increasingly interact with its services through AI-powered workplace tools rather than dedicated websites.
Morgan Stanley is using the open-source Model Context Protocol to enable these connections. The company believes that its proprietary data and expertise will remain key differentiators as AI becomes a more common interface for financial services.
The bank has already launched pilot programs with a small group of clients and plans to make the feature available to its roughly 3,400 stock-plan administration customers by next year. The initiative reflects the growing adoption of agentic AI, which allows software agents to perform tasks and interact with business systems autonomously.
Strategy to Support MS’ Wealth Management Push
The push into agentic AI is the latest step in Morgan Stanley’s long-term strategy to expand its wealth management business and reduce its dependence on the more volatile capital markets segment. Over the years, the company has strengthened its wealth management platform through acquisitions, such as Shareworks and E*TRADE, turning its workplace business into an important source of new client relationships and assets.
This strategy has already helped Morgan Stanley gather $1.2 trillion in assets through its workplace channel.
The new AI capabilities could further strengthen this growth engine by enabling corporate clients to manage increasingly complex employee stock compensation plans more efficiently. As Morgan Stanley administers these plans, it will gain access to employees who may eventually become wealth management clients as their financial assets grow.
The initiative is also expected to improve Morgan Stanley’s own efficiency. By using AI to support customer service, plan administration and other operational functions, the firm may be able to scale its wealth management platform and serve more clients without a proportional increase in staffing costs.
This will help Morgan Stanley continue expanding its fee-based wealth management revenues, supporting its broader goal of building a more diversified and stable business that is less reliant on capital markets activity.
Morgan Stanley’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank
Over the past six months, MS shares have gained 16.6%, outperforming the industry’s 1.4% growth.
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Currently, Morgan Stanley carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Morgan Stanley’s Competitive Landscape
While Morgan Stanley is opening its platforms to external AI agents, rivals like JPMorgan JPM and Goldman Sachs GS have so far concentrated on deploying AI within their own organizations.
Both banks are using AI-powered assistants and agentic tools to automate tasks such as software development, research, document review, data analysis and operational workflows, helping employees improve productivity and reduce manual work.
JPMorgan has integrated AI tools across several business lines, including investment banking and software engineering, while Goldman Sachs has been developing AI-powered "digital co-workers" to support functions ranging from coding to client onboarding and compliance processes. However, neither JPM nor GS has yet publicly announced plans to allow clients' AI agents to directly access or interact with their core platforms and systems.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).