AI in investment management: from exploration to implementation
Author:
Christian Runge
Senior Director of Engineering, Artificial Intelligence
SimCorp
The investment management industry is rapidly progressing from AI experimentation to real-world implementation. McKinsey's January 2025 "Superagency in the Workplace" research reveals a striking reality: while nearly all companies are investing in AI, only 1% have reached deployment maturity. This gap represents both an urgent challenge and a significant opportunity for forward-thinking firms ready to gain competitive advantage through strategic AI adoption.
SimCorp's AI strategy:
Purpose-driven,
not technology-driven
At SimCorp, our approach to AI is deliberate and strategic, not driven by technological novelty alone. We've been pioneers in this space, integrating Machine Learning capabilities into our solutions for nearly a decade. This experience has taught us a fundamental principle: AI implementations must serve clear business objectives rather than existing as standalone innovations. Every AI feature we develop directly supports our core mission of empowering clients to make faster, more informed investment decisions.
Experience has shown us that AI delivers its greatest value when seamlessly woven into users' natural interactions with our solutions. Rather than pursuing technically impressive yet isolated capabilities like document summarization, we leverage our unique strength in integration. By thoughtfully embedding AI capabilities directly into our clients' daily workflows, we deliver impact where it genuinely enhances outcomes—throughout the entire investment lifecycle, from decision-making to execution and reporting.
A multi-faceted approach to AI implementation
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Our AI strategy encompasses several complementary streams, each with different scopes, timelines, and impact levels:
The Future of AI in Investment Management
As we look ahead, the investment management industry stands at the cusp of significant transformation driven by AI advancement. The evolution of AI capabilities is following a clear trajectory that will fundamentally reshape how investment professionals work:
- Reactive Conversation (Today): Current AI systems primarily respond to direct queries and commands, providing information, analysis, and suggestions when explicitly asked. They excel at retrieving information and generating content based on specific prompts.
- Task Performance (Emerging): We're now entering an era where AI can autonomously perform complex tasks across investment workflows. These systems can execute processes like data analysis, compliance checks, and portfolio rebalancing with minimal human intervention, significantly enhancing operational efficiency.
- Proactive Copilot (Future): The next frontier is AI that anticipates needs, identifies opportunities, and proactively suggests actions before problems arise. These advanced systems will function as true partners to investment professionals, combining domain expertise with predictive capabilities to optimize decision-making across the investment lifecycle.
This evolution will enable investment professionals to focus increasingly on high-value activities while AI handles routine operations and surfaces insights that might otherwise remain hidden. We expect to see greater automation of operational tasks alongside more sophisticated decision support through improved reasoning capabilities.
In this rapidly accelerating environment, firms that strategically implement AI now will establish significant competitive advantages. At SimCorp, we're committed to guiding clients through each stage of this journey with integrated solutions that balance innovation with security and control. Our comprehensive approach ensures clients can capture immediate benefits while positioning themselves for the transformative future of AI in investment management.
For more information about our AI initiatives, contact me at Christian.Runge@simcorp.com