22 July 2026
For decades, one of finance’s fundamental assumptions has remained remarkably stable: superior investment performance comes from processing information better than everyone else.
Artificial intelligence may be changing that assumption.
In its latest report, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Finance: A Structural Change Perspective, the CFA Institute Research and Policy Center argues that AI should not be viewed merely as another technological innovation. Instead, it represents a structural force capable of reshaping the architecture of capital markets themselves.
Rather than asking how AI can improve existing investment processes, the report explores a broader question: what happens when analytical intelligence becomes abundant, inexpensive and widely accessible?
Historically, investment firms competed by gathering proprietary information, building analytical expertise and identifying mispriced securities before others did. As increasingly sophisticated AI systems become embedded across research, portfolio construction, trading and risk management, however, informational advantages may gradually erode. Processing vast quantities of structured and unstructured data is becoming faster, cheaper and more widely available than ever before.
This shift has important implications for professional investors. If information itself becomes less scarce, competitive advantage is likely to move elsewhere.
The report suggests that future investment skill will depend less on finding information first and more on designing robust decision-making systems, governing AI models effectively, ensuring data quality and exercising sound judgment over increasingly automated processes. Human expertise does not disappear; rather, its value migrates toward asking better questions, interpreting model outputs and maintaining accountability for investment decisions.
To explain this transformation, the report introduces four interconnected forces driving AI adoption across finance:
- Capability, as AI systems become increasingly powerful;
- Adoption, as firms redesign investment processes around these technologies;
- Substitution, as machines assume tasks previously performed by humans;
- Recomposition, as these changes ultimately reshape the structure of financial markets themselves.
Perhaps the report’s most thought-provoking contribution is its framework describing four possible future market states.
Markets could remain primarily augmented, where AI enhances human decision-making while professional judgment continues to dominate. Alternatively, AI capabilities could widen performance differences between firms, leading to competitive divergence. In another scenario, widespread reliance on common AI platforms may produce platform convergence, concentrating competitive advantages among a relatively small number of technology providers. Finally, the report considers the possibility of model-mediated markets, in which AI systems increasingly influence - or even mediate - the allocation of capital itself.
Such developments create opportunities, but they also introduce new risks.
If many market participants rely on similar models, data sources and optimisation techniques, diversity of opinion may decline. During periods of market stress, similar signals could trigger increasingly synchronized investment decisions, amplifying correlations and potentially increasing systemic risk. Governance therefore becomes as important as technological capability. The report argues that firms will need stronger oversight, clearer accountability and more rigorous model validation as AI becomes embedded in investment processes.
For investment professionals, the message extends well beyond technology.
AI is not eliminating the need for human expertise; it is redefining where that expertise creates value. As routine analysis becomes increasingly automated, differentiation is likely to depend less on computational speed and more on strategic thinking, critical judgment, ethical oversight and the ability to govern increasingly complex decision-making systems.
For members of CFA Society Italy, the report offers an important perspective on the future of the profession. The next competitive advantage may no longer come from possessing more information than the market, but from understanding how to combine human judgment, robust governance and artificial intelligence to make better investment decisions in an increasingly automated financial system.