A $1.4 billion Merrill Lynch team has turned to an artificial intelligence stock picking tool to help guide its client accounts.

The San Diego-based Hegardt Group uses technology from Trade Ideas to offer input on stock selection, a task which its three-person investment team does in addition to relying on home office guidance, says group member Michael Steelman, advisor and senior v.p. for Merrill.

“We’re a really large team with a full-time portfolio manager. There are a few teams like us in the private bank model, but with 15,000 advisors at Merrill, there’s not many doing what we do,” he says…