Globally, wealth and asset management firms are accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, and making significant progress in laying the foundation for AI transformation.

According to a survey by Publicis Sapient and ThoughtLab, 78% of the 500 firms polled are cultivating cultures that encourage AI innovation, 77% are developing an AI strategy and roadmap, and 73% are adopting cloud-based IT platforms to support AI use.

Talent and governance are also key priorities. 69% of firms are developing or acquiring AI skills across the organization, and 67% are implementing governance policies to ensure responsible AI use.

Together, these findings suggest that while wealth and asset management firms are adopting advanced AI technologies, most are also proactively protecting themselves from AI risks by installing governance and control mechanisms.

ML, NLP, genAI lead AI efforts

The study found that most AI initiatives to date have been centered on earlier generations of AI, such as machine learning (ML) (45%) to automate specific, pre-defined tasks, and natural language processing (NLP) (43%) to power chatbots. More recently, companies have embraced generative AI (genAI) (37%), leveraging the technology’s ability to create content, summarize documents and prepare meeting notes.

GenAI adoption is now accelerating and expanding into higher-value use cases, particularly in enhancing the experience and capabilities of investment advisors. Among surveyed firms, 57% use genAI to analyze client feedback from surveys, emails, and CRM notes; and 56% use it to generate personalized client communications. These applications signal a shift from task-level automation toward AI-driven augmentation of advisor insight, productivity, and client engagement.

The study also revealed that back-office functions, including code development, business processes, and custody services, are currently the top candidates for early AI deployment because of the enormous efficiency and productivity gains they can yield.

In the middle office, firms are harnessing AI to automate compliance checks to quickly identify any violations, detect anomalies in real time, and prevent fraudulent transactions.

In the front office, nearly six in ten firms use AI to deepen customer analysis, while slightly fewer offer AI-enabled chatbots and self-service portals to provide clients with 24/7 personalized support. Almost half of firms leverage AI to create highly customized products for individual clients.

Large firms and APAC emerge as AI leaders

The study categorizes respondents by their level of AI maturity and return on investment (ROI), identifying 21% as industry leaders. These leaders are typically larger wealth and asset management firms with deep pockets and large talent resources. Insurance firms and universal banks also rank highly, reflecting their high volume of repetitive customer interactions and onboarding activities that are well suited to AI automation.

The study also found that AI leaders enjoy bigger returns from their AI investments. On average, they see a return of nearly 5% versus 3% for others. Over a third of them see large positive returns exceeding 7%.

Returns on individual use cases can be even higher. For example, 44% of leaders reported ROI of 50% and over on robo-advisors, and 29% reported similar gains from AI-driven code writing and editing.

Those superior returns reflect earlier adoption of AI, clearer prioritization of high-potential AI use cases, and stronger AI-ready organizational, data and technology foundations.

Geographically, firms in Asia-Pacific (APAC) are the most advanced in AI adoption. This is partly due to national strategies to promote AI, as well as a large pool of AI talent and customers open to AI.

Key initiatives include the National AI Strategy in Singapore, which aims to establish the city-state as an AI hub with strategic projects across key sectors, the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint, which strives for regional digital leadership by 2030, and the Thailand National AI Strategy and Action Plan, which seeks to prepare essential infrastructure for AI development to promote economic growth.

Though European and North American firms trail their APAC counterparts, the gap is expected to narrow as they amp up their investment in advanced AI technologies.

Looking ahead

Over the next three years, wealth and asset management firms globally plan to expand adoption of emerging AI technologies, including multimodal AI (333%) for analyzing data in any format, explainable AI (192%) to make AI decisions more transparent, and agentic AI (100%) to take on tasks formerly handled by people.

These trends are reinforced by 2025 EY survey of approximately 100 industry participants. The study found that while only 7% currently use agentic AI, 85% expect to have agentic AI use cases fully built and integrated within the next two years. Anticipated applications include continuous client monitoring, proactive outreach, and automated preparation of planning updates.

GenAI will also remain a major focus, with more investment to be allocated to the technology moving forward. Although 63% of firms allocated less than 10% of their resources to genAI over the last one to two years, 77% expect to allocate more than 11% over the next one to two years.

Asset and wealth management firms increasingly view AI as a transformative force. In a 2025 PwC survey, 73% of respondents identified AI as the most transformative technology over the next two to three years. 80% believe such technology will fuel revenue growth, with 84% noting it will improve operational efficiency and 72% noting it will improve employee productivity. The provision of tech-as-a-service by asset and wealth management organizations could deliver a 12% boost to revenues by 2028, according to PwC analysis.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by Dmitrii Travnikov via Freepik