Beyond the hype:

Author:

Laurent Louvrier
VP of Product, Artificial Intelligence at Confluence^® Technologies

For the last two years, the investment management industry has been stuck in a cycle of anticipation regarding artificial intelligence. We’ve all seen the promising headlines of the impact of GenAI, but as we look toward 2026, the mood on the ground is shifting. Fatigue regarding "possibility" is setting in, replaced by a need for "actual execution."

2026 will be the year where fantasies are replaced by operational reality. The industry is moving from an exploration phase to one of targeted applications. The most exciting use cases for AI in 2026 might sound boring to an outsider, but to an operations director, they represent tangible impact.

The shift to supervised AI

The sentiment I am hearing from clients and partners is clear: firms are done with experiments that do not deliver meaningful business value. A number of AI-integrated products haven’t delivered, and there’s a secular shift towards targeted deployments that reduce cycle times and improve consistency.

It is less about replacing individuals and more about incremental gains, such as improved data validation, reconciliation checks, and document consistency. AI will give the most significant boost to overburdened operational teams. We see a massive uptick in the adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) explicitly designed for summarization and regulatory preparation. The goal isn't to reinvent workflows overnight, but to enhance them in ways that are transparent and built for the long term. In 2026, AI becomes an augmentation tool, freeing up specialists to focus on exceptions and oversight rather than data validation.

The great vendor rationalization

The push for AI has exposed a critical weakness in the industry: data fragmentation. You cannot effectively run predictive analytics or automated reconciliation if your data is trapped across multiple legacy systems that don't communicate with each other.

This is driving a massive trend toward vendor consolidation. Nearly half of asset managers now view streamlining operations with a "best-of-suite" strategy as the most effective path to digital transformation. For some, this is an excuse to review creaky infrastructure that’s increasingly not fit for purpose, but for others, the chance to add missing capabilities.

In 2026, we expect this to hit a tipping point. The pressure to reduce manual handoffs and ensure data lineage is forcing firms to abandon the "patchwork quilt" approach to technology. Strict cost-cutting is out; auditability is in. A consolidated vendor relationship makes it much easier to prove you know where your data came from and who touched it.

Next year: The human element is in

The ultimate theme for 2026 is "integration." Whether it’s integrating risk calculations into reporting platforms or integrating public and private market data, the silos are coming down. AI execution will only be possible on the back of solid data foundations.

This transition requires a measured, compliance-first approach. We are moving toward a world of "supervised AI" and integrated workflows where technology creates stability, not disruption. The firms that win in 2026 won't necessarily be the ones with the flashiest chatbots; they will be the ones who have the infrastructure to stop wrestling their data and start using it.

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