The digital advice market will top $83 billion by the end of 2016, according to a November report by Cerulli Associates, with growth projected to reach $385 billion in the next five years. The report found assets controlled by investors interested in using those platforms will exceed $3.3 trillion. "This represents 14% of all assets in reasonably addressable wealth tiers, with an additional 17% as available for consideration in the future," according to Cerulli.

Although the next half decade is a period of "significant growth" for robos, according to the report, there is "tremendous demand and opportunity" for traditional firms that can "enhance their digital offerings, strengthen their breadth of engagement and reinforce the value of personalized advice."

Cerulli noted that over the past year, it's become clear that digital advice platforms "are not the fundamental disruption that the traditional financial industry has been concerned about."