The $150 Trillion Question—What Is AI’s Value In Asset Management

Today’s StocksMoneyMarketsThe $150 Trillion Question—What Is AI’s Value In Asset ManagementByCarrie McCabe,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Carrie McCabe reports on asset management, strategy, and investing.Follow AuthorMay 20, 2026, 03:52pm EDTMay 20, 2026, 04:13pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.AI in Asset ManagementPhoto credit: Getty ImagesAI is separating asset management into firms that are getting cheaper—and firms that are getting irreplaceable. The best ones are doing both.Ken Griffin went home depressed on a Friday.The founder of Citadel, one of the world’s most powerful hedge funds, had spent months publicly dismissing AI as impressive on the surface but "all garbage" underneath. That was January at Davos. By May, he was telling Stanford’s Business School Leadership Forum that he’d had a personal reckoning, the catalyst being what AI was actually doing inside his own firm."Work that we would usually do with people with masters and PhDs in finance over the course of weeks or months," Griffin said, "is being done by AI agents over the course of hours or days." He added: "I went home one Friday, actually fairly depressed. Because you could just see how this was going to have such a dramatic impact on society." When a confirmed skeptic of Griffin’s caliber reverses in a matter of months, the industry pays attention. Not because AI is about to replace portfolio managers—it isn’t, at least not yet. But because the structural reorganization AI is triggering is already underway. The firms that misread the signals won’t just fall behind on cost. They’ll likely be in danger of ceding the ground that makes them worth paying for at all.MORE FOR YOUThe Productivity Paradox, Finally Cracked?Here is the uncomfortable backdrop. The asset management industry has been spending aggressively on tec...