Post-mortem of Digital Wealth Platforms: A Synthesis and New Framework for User Engagement and Value Creation

Till date moderate research has been done on the financial advisory and wealth management robo-integrated platforms and Apps ever since the AIs invasion. Of all those investigations, only the relevant ones are funnelled to critically examine gaps and highlight determinants followed to understand the user engagement. Through a systematic review, it is identified that platform user engagement was treated as either static and short-term behaviour, or an evolving process, by considering implicit parameters. The paper adopted a hybrid review approach that combines the rigor of a PRISMA-guided (Page, et al., 2021) systematic search with deeper meta-theoretical critique and constructive theory-building. For this purpose, 1,456 records from Scopus and Web of Science were initially screened and after due filters final number got settled at 126 high-quality (Q1/Q2) studies that were published between 2015 and 2025. The analysis reveals six key thematic clusters: adoption and trust barriers, tailored and systemic efficiency, gamification and prompts, human-AI integration and anthropomorphism, intelligibility and ethical concerns, in coherence with sustainability. Furthermore, four core meta-theoretical fissures viz., ontological (assumption Vs. real), epistemological (positivist Vs. interpretivist), axiological (efficiency Vs. empowerment), and methodological (qualitative Vs quantitative) evidence underwent an exhaustive scrutiny. Accordingly, a new integrated framework is proposed to delve on the value engagement and value creation for such platforms in future. This model is likely to unify hitherto theoretical dichotomy and guide in designing transparent, hybrid, and sustainable platforms while underscoring the need for standards and shove for better practices.