NASHVILLE — Never turn your back on the ocean, evenmetaphorically. At the NAPA 401(k) Summit this week, advisors arehere to see what’s brewing in the choppy financial industry seas.One wave to watch is that of the robo-advisor trend.

Robo-advising is not asfuturistic-made-for-movies as it sounds. It’s simply an onlinesoftware advisory solution that uses algorithms to pick investmentsto meet a client’s goals.

Still, this technology is making a splash in thefinancial industry.

A recent study from Scottrade reveals that morethan nine in 10 RIAs believe robo-advisors will become moreprevalent in the financial industry over the next two years.

Forty percent of RIAs say they see robo-advisors ascomplementary to their business, while 23 percent say they viewthem as competition. No matter whether they view it as threat oropportunity, 28 percent of RIAs say they currently offeralgorithmic-based investment advice and 19 percent plan to offer itin the coming year. Interestingly, the study says that RIAsmanaging $500 million or more in assets are more likely to offerthese services than those with less than $500 million inassets.

What do consumers think of it? They’re interested, according toa study from consulting firm AT Kearney. The firm says in the next three tofive years robo-advisory services move into the mainstream amongU.S. consumers.

Whether the investments selected by the algorithm software areall from one firm’s stable or are the best possible chosen from avariety of offerings, depends on the robo-advisory solution. Andwhether clients adopt it quickly or lag somewhat will also dependon demographics and tolerance for risk.

According to the AT Kearney study, the first wave of adopters, what it calls“pioneers” will typically be clients who are younger, say, under 35years of age. They will be more sophisticated at investing. Theirinterest will more likely be in low-cost investing.

The next wave, or the “enthusiasts” will be slightly older, butless sophisticated at investing—more of this population will be atthe novice level of investing. Their interest in investing willhover around moving from liquid funds to mutual funds andexchange-traded funds, ATKearney says.

The wave of later adopters after that will again be even older,also less sophisticated at investing, with some share of retireesin this group.

The forgivable question is this: Will your job be replaced by arobot?

Welcome to the question that over the last decade has put fearinto the hearts of many, from umpires to tax preparers to language translators tosports bloggers. The short answer is “no.” The longer answer is“What you can offer that a robot can’t is what might become mostimportant.”

As Michael Kitces says in his blog: “… in the end,robo-advisors may be less of a threat to traditional advisors, thansimply an acknowledgement that inefficient advisors that don’tsystematize and utilize technology will be increasingly threatenedby those who do – whether robot, or technology-augmentedhuman.”

Suffice it to say, this is an area of opportunity for many. Butwhether it is or isn’t for you, like any good ocean watcher, youmust not turn your back on it.