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Unlocking strategic advantage: Generative AI in wealth and asset management

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08 minute read 16 Sep 2025
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Financial services
Wealth and asset management

Wealth and asset managers see cost savings from GenAI in compliance and risk management as well as efficiencies in IT operations. 

In brief
  • Compliance, risk management and IT departments have realized the largest cost savings from GenAI.
  • Strategic investment priorities are moving beyond the back and middle-office to include a broad range of front-office, customer-facing functions.
  • Leaders must address personalization, integration, governance, risk management, differentiation and the importance of achieving scale to create value.

Generative AI (GenAI) has swiftly emerged as a pivotal strategic capability for wealth and asset management (WAM) firms. In early 2025, an EY team conducted research into the evolving demand for and investments in GenAI applications across 100 wealth and asset managers. The results showed that 95% of firms have scaled their adoption to multiple use cases, with an overwhelming 78% already exploring agentic AI to unlock deeper strategic advantages. Much of the GenAI activity is focused on use cases that support proactive client engagement and real-time risk management. While more firms are moving from proof of concept into production with use cases, only slightly more than one-quarter of executives reported a substantial business impact.

In our 2024 report, Five priorities for winning with GenAI in wealth and asset management, we identified critical focus areas for firms beginning their GenAI journey: reimagining business models, rethinking operations, building robust governance, investing strategically in data and talent, and prioritizing high-ROI use cases. Over the past year, WAM firms have made substantial progress, notably in operational improvements and foundational GenAI deployments.

Of survey respondents,
have implemented 3-5 GenAI use cases

How significant of an impact has generative AI had on your firm over the past 1-2 years?


How EY can help

This progress highlights the critical next phase: moving from tactical implementation to strategic integration. Building on our earlier insights, this report identifies new imperatives for executives to realize the full strategic potential of GenAI.

 

Early wins with GenAI in wealth and asset management: Delivering immediate impact

Many initial deployments of GenAI have delivered clear operational successes across compliance, risk management and IT infrastructure for both wealth managers and asset managers. After these core back-office functions, the next three departments realizing the greatest cost savings are sales and marketing, client services, and client acquisition and onboarding, showing signs that front-office operations are a growing area of interest and investment.

  • Wealth managers with assets under management (AUM) between $501m and $25b consistently report significant cost savings in compliance and risk management.

  • Large asset managers with AUM ranging from $2t to $25t have realized substantial efficiency gains in IT infrastructure.

These early wins underline GenAI’s potential to simplify complex operations, laying a robust foundation for broader strategic initiatives. Nonetheless, firms have encountered notable challenges. While regulatory and privacy issues are top concerns, inaccuracies, hallucinations and model bias continue to be areas that need work. Some of these core issues around back-end data can prevent users from fully trusting outputs and ultimately impact adoption.

  • Regulatory and compliance complexities surprised 86% of firms.

  • Concerns around data privacy, accuracy and external data utilization were widespread at 77%.

What are the 'key learnings' from AI technology adoption?


Additionally, strategic planning surfaced as an essential area for improvement, with two-thirds of early adopters indicating they would revise their initial strategies. Key improvement opportunities include proactively engaging regulatory bodies, building robust and agile data governance frameworks, and adopting flexible planning processes.

Download the wealth and asset management GenAI survey highlights.

PDF (825 KB)

How EY-P can help

Accelerating investment in GenAI in wealth and asset management

GenAI enjoys high-level leadership support and continues to gain traction with more companies planning on adding resources to projects. Over 95% of GenAI initiatives are directly sponsored by executive leadership, typically overseen by technology leaders reporting to chief information officers or chief technology officers. Historically, only 4% of firms dedicated substantial resources (16% to 20%) to GenAI, but this is rapidly changing. One-third of firms plan to significantly increase their resources in the next two years, and 75% are budgeting investments exceeding $11m. This shift demonstrates that GenAI is now essential for competitive advantage, beyond just technological upgrades.

 

Future investment strategies reflect clear ambition and targeted focus:

  • Large wealth managers (more than $25b AUM) are significantly scaling, with 35% planning more than 15 new use cases within two years.

  • Midsized asset managers ($101b to $500b AUM) prefer a strategic, selective approach, focusing on six to nine high-impact use cases.

 

What is the total number of GenAI models/use cases that your firm expects to implement/put into production in the next 2 years?


Strategic priorities place increased focus on front office

While risk management and middle-/back-office use cases continue to be a core focus, strategic investment priorities moving forward include a broad range of front-office functions. Firms expect to invest in client engagement activities including lead generation, client behavior modeling, scenario planning and various use cases supporting advisors in their client service roles.

Where do you expect to priortize investment across front-office functions?


Preparing the wealth and asset management workforce for transformation

Currently, workforce impacts remain modest, with 97% of WAM firms reporting minimal headcount changes. However, 68% anticipate substantial workforce transformations — particularly in middle- and back-office roles — over the next five years. The emergence of agentic AI will further accelerate this shift, transforming traditional roles into more strategic oversight positions. Routine analytical tasks and repetitive processes are likely to be increasingly delegated to AI agents, compelling executives to strategically realign workforce capabilities. Proactive workforce planning, targeted skill development and effective change management initiatives are essential for smoothly managing this transition and providing organizational readiness for an AI-driven environment.

Of survey respondents
anticipate substantial workforce transformations – particularly in middle-and back-office roles – over the next five years.

Technology and vendor strategies for wealth and asset managers

Most WAM firms (87%) rely on established, closed-source large language models hosted on trusted platforms. The majority (62%) prefer hybrid solutions that blend vendor-supplied AI capabilities with internal customizations to achieve a balance between rapid scalability and tailored functionality.

Going forward, executives should strategically enhance their technology and vendor approaches by:

Enhancing the value of GenAI in wealth and asset management

Enhancing value will mean different approaches for different firms. Leaders must balance tactical and strategic considerations while addressing aspects of personalization, integration, governance, risk management, differentiation and the importance of achieving scale to create value.

Strategic insights for wealth managers

Strategic insights for asset managers

Realizing the strategic potential of GenAI in wealth and asset management

The strategic value of GenAI for WAM firms is clear, with early adopters already capturing tangible operational improvements. Yet, the most significant opportunities still lie ahead. By proactively managing regulatory complexities, establishing sophisticated governance structures, enhancing technological infrastructure and strategically preparing their workforce, executives can position their organizations as industry leaders. Through thoughtful integration of GenAI and agentic AI solutions, WAM firms can drive sustained innovation, deepen client relationships and secure enduring competitive advantage.


Following were contributors to this article:

  • Manali Patel - Manager, Ernst & Young LLP
  • Dalton Bianco - Manager, Ernst & Young LLP
  • Csilla Martin, Manager, Ernst & Young LLP
  • Virginia Sideleva, Senior, Ernst & Young LLP

Summary 

Early GenAI wins and cost savings in risk management, compliance and IT operations have given leaders in wealth and asset management the baseline confidence to move forward in new areas. Customer-facing operations have become the next strategic priority for investments. Defining governance and workforce transformation as well as developing a comprehensive technology and vendor strategy will be crucial to success.

About this article

Authors

Related topics
Financial services
Wealth and asset management

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