Focus on data intelligence - the landmark launch of Aiviq Intelligence, the rapid expansion of our North American operations, and the investments in people and product that will define the years ahead...
Execution Under Pressure
Asset and wealth management in 2026 is in a more demanding environment than a year ago. Firms that spent recent years investing in AI, data infrastructure and private markets capabilities are now being held to account for the returns on those investments - while simultaneously navigating persistent fee pressure, tightening distribution access and a regulatory landscape that continues to diverge across major markets.
Geopolitical uncertainty is adding another layer of complexity. Shifting trade dynamics, continued volatility across fixed income markets and the uneven pace of rate normalisation are forcing managers to reassess both their product strategies and operational models, and the scrutiny on technology spend - once relatively protected - has extended to every line of the budget.
Industry consolidation is accelerating in response, with larger managers leveraging scale and technology to absorb complexity while boutique and mid-sized firms double down on specialisation and digital capability. In both cases, the underlying requirement is the same: a data foundation robust enough to support strategic decisions at speed, across geographies and vehicle types, without introducing operational fragility.
Technology investment remains non-negotiable despite these pressures. Firms across the spectrum are pushing forward with AI adoption, cloud migration and distribution data automation - not because budgets are unconstrained, but because the cost of standing still is now measurably higher than the cost of moving.
The challenge for most is not ambition but execution, as legacy infrastructure and fragmented data estates continue to absorb resources that should be driving growth. The firms navigating this well share a common denominator: a trusted, enterprise-wide data platform that connects every dimension of their business - distribution, agreements, client relationships and commercial analytics - into a single coherent operating model. Those still managing fragmented, siloed datasets are finding that their ambitions, whether in AI deployment, alternatives expansion or operational efficiency, stall at the data layer. That gap is widening, and the cost of inaction is rising.
Key Trends Shaping 2026–2027
Success in 2026 and beyond will depend on firms' ability to move from data management to data intelligence - turning clean, connected foundations into measurable commercial outcomes. This requires disciplined investment in platform consolidation, AI governance and the operating model changes needed to sustain it.
Partnering for the Intelligent Era
Strategic partnerships with specialist technology providers are becoming a core part of how firms execute - not a workaround, but a deliberate model for accelerating capability without accumulating technical debt, backed by proven integration frameworks and the track record to deliver at enterprise scale.
A related shift is underway in how firms evaluate their technology vendors. As AI becomes the primary intermediary between users and information, the value of a platform is no longer its interface - it is the domain expertise, semantic logic and institutional knowledge encoded within it.
"AI-assisted development has made it easier to build something that looks like a solution; it has not made it easier to replicate a decade of edge cases, regulatory complexity and data governance discipline. That depth is not a feature that can be rapidly prototyped. It is the moat, and it is widening."
The priorities for FY26/27 are clear: consolidating fragmented data estates into a single operating model, extending that model to cover alternatives and private markets alongside traditional distribution, and layering AI-powered intelligence on top of a validated data foundation - not as a shortcut around one. Firms that attempt to deploy AI before establishing data quality and governance will find themselves compounding existing problems rather than solving them.
As AI becomes embedded in core workflows, the governance and security architecture of the platforms firms rely on matters as much as the capabilities themselves. Partnering with vendors who hold current ISO 27001:2022, Cyber Essentials Plus and SOC 2 Type II certifications - with closed, air-gapped inference environments and fully auditable model outputs - provides the assurance framework firms need to move quickly without compromising on data protection, operational resilience or regulatory compliance.
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The Client Data Platform, Now Intelligent and Truly Global
"Against this backdrop, Aiviq's strategic direction is clear. We are deepening and extending our position as the enterprise client data platform for global asset management - one that not only ensures data is clean, connected and governed across every vehicle, channel and jurisdiction, but now actively transforms it into commercial intelligence."
With the launch of Aiviq Intelligence this year, we crossed an important threshold. Our Client Intelligence module delivers AI-powered executive briefings, flow pattern recognition, redemption risk alerts and propensity-based growth opportunity identification - all built on the trusted CBOR data our clients have already established, with no additional data requirements and no lengthy setup.
Looking into FY26/27, our focus shifts firmly from what happened to what to do next. We are investing in the next generation of Aiviq Intelligence - extending our Client Intelligence capabilities, introducing Agreement AI that brings search, analysis and contract intelligence to financial terms management, and developing AI-powered tools for client hierarchy management and relationship graph visualisation. Underpinning all of it is the same commitment: intelligence grounded in verified, auditable data, governed with the rigour regulated firms require, and deployable within clients' own secure environments. We are also growing the specialist team delivering these capabilities - combining data science, domain expertise and engineering talent to build what we believe will be first-of-its-kind AI solutions for the asset management industry.
Product & Service Innovation
Aiviq's product development is driven by deep market understanding, with our teams conducting thousands of client engagements each year - ensuring our platform evolves alongside the real operational challenges our clients face.
This year marked a considerable step forward in our Global CBOR, with new third-party data source integrations and extensive product localisation across North America, giving managers access to client data across every market and vehicle type - from ETFs and mutual funds to SMAs, model portfolios and alternatives structures.
In Financial Terms Management, we dramatically extended our data model to capture granular AUM methodologies and complex rate structures, launching our TermsCloud Customer Forum to bring clients directly into the product design process. We also fundamentally reimagined client matching through entity auto-matching rules and ML-powered suggestions, reducing complexity and accelerating accurate AUM attribution at scale.
Perhaps most significantly, we unveiled Aiviq Intelligence - our AI-powered capability bringing intelligent insights throughout the platform.
"Starting with AskAiviq, our conversational AI assistant, and our Client Intelligence module delivering executive briefings, flow pattern recognition, redemption risk alerts and growth opportunity identification, we are expanding intelligence across the full platform throughout 2026."
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Our Snowflake Native App completes the picture, delivering ready-to-use reporting and AI insights directly within clients' own environments - removing weeks of setup and accelerating time-to-value entirely.
Behind every release is a team that combines deep domain expertise with genuine curiosity about what comes next. The product advances described above are the result of that - people who understand the industry well enough to anticipate its needs, and care enough about the craft to build solutions that hold up in production. We are proud of what this team has delivered, and excited about what they are building next.
Looking Back
FY25/26 was a year of genuine step-change. Commercially, our North American operations expanded significantly under Sam Iles' leadership, with new enterprise clients across the world's largest asset management market reflecting both the depth of regional localisation we have built and the growing recognition of Aiviq as a global standard. Our Professional Services capability scaled in parallel - bringing the implementation expertise, domain depth and delivery rigour that large-scale transformation programmes require.
On the platform, Project Quantum established Delta Lake as the foundation for a true cloud-native architecture, underpinning everything above it. Global CBOR expanded with new data source integrations and deep North American localisation; ML-powered client matching and extended Financial Terms Management transformed commercial analytics; and the launch of Aiviq Intelligence marked one of the most strategically significant moments in our history - the intelligence layer the platform was always designed to support.
Our work with the Investment Data Exchange Network (IDEN), which Aiviq co-chairs IDEN alongside J.P. Morgan Asset Management, our third consecutive WealthTech100 recognition, and global implementations across multiple regions reflect an Aiviq that is not just growing, but shaping the industry it serves.
Looking Forward
With Alpha FMC’s and Bridgepoint's continued backing, we are accelerating investment across our roadmap, our people and our global footprint. Our North American operations are scaling quickly - and we see the world's largest asset management market as a defining growth opportunity in the years ahead. The foundations we have laid in FY25/26 position us to move faster and reach further than at any point in our history. The ambition for FY26/27 is clear: to deepen our position as the enterprise client data platform that global asset managers rely on, and to extend that foundation into the next generation of intelligence - through Agreement AI bringing contract intelligence to financial terms management, enhanced client hierarchy and relationship graph tools.
But ambition alone doesn't build great products or retain exceptional clients - people do. As we scale, we remain committed to the values that have defined Aiviq from the beginning: intellectual rigour, client obsession, and the kind of culture where talented people do their best work. To every member of the Aiviq team who contributed to an extraordinary year - thank you. We look forward to continuing that journey together.
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