A Northern Trust survey of 300 global investment leaders finds outsourcing and AI adoption reshaping asset management operating models in 2026
Asset managers around the world are scaling back product ambitions and doubling down on operational efficiency, outsourcing, and artificial intelligence, according to a major global survey by Northern Trust Corporation, the Chicago-based financial services company.
The biennial report, Driving Growth in Asset Management 2026, surveyed 300 chief executive officers, chief investment officers, and operations directors at asset management firms across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
Conducted in spring 2026 by InvestOps Insights on behalf of Northern Trust, the study captures how investment management strategies have evolved since 2024 against a backdrop of market volatility, fee compression, and accelerating technology adoption.
The results signal a decisive break from expansion-first thinking. The proportion of asset managers naming product growth as a top priority fell to 47 per cent in 2026, down from 60 per cent in 2024, per the Northern Trust report. Meanwhile, product reduction, shedding offerings that no longer earn their place, climbed from five per cent to 28 per cent of respondents over the same period.
Outsourcing gains ground as cost pressures bite
The share of managers planning to achieve their strategic priorities by outsourcing non-core activities more than doubled, rising from 18 per cent in 2024 to 39 per cent in 2026, according to the Northern Trust report. Cost control strategies are also shifting: offshoring emerged as the leading measure, cited by 69 per cent of respondents, while outsourcing non-core activities rose to 42 per cent.
"Managers are doing more with fewer, more strategic partners," said Angelo Calvitto, head of Asia Pacific at Northern Trust. "The goal is not only lower cost, but a more straightforward operating model with stronger control, better quality and the scale to support future growth."
The direction mirrors what Canadian wealth management professionals are navigating on the technology front. Asset managers are facing a tougher growth race as distribution and AI reshape the industry, with a Boston Consulting Group report from April 2026 finding that scale and strong distribution, not performance alone, are increasingly determining which firms capture net inflows.
Distribution narrows; every firm is now an AI user
Rather than chasing every market segment, asset managers in the Northern Trust survey are becoming more deliberate about where they compete for flows.
More than half of respondents indicated plans to target new client types and expand into new global markets but through concentrated bets, not broad pushes. Ryan Burns, head of Asset Managers and Private Markets, Americas at Northern Trust, said firms are extending successful strategies through vehicles such as exchange-traded funds, semi-liquid funds, and collective investment trusts rather than building out new product ranges from scratch.
"Rather than pursuing broad-based expansion, firms are directing resources toward investment expertise, client outcomes and distribution, while extending successful strategies through vehicles such as ETFs, semi-liquid funds and collective investment trusts," Burns said.
On artificial intelligence, the survey produced a result that would have seemed implausible just a few years ago: every respondent reported deploying AI in some form.
Leading use cases were data accuracy and quality control, document management, and research support. The finding points to a technology that has crossed from pilot phase to operational standard across the global asset management industry.
That trajectory is visible in the Canadian market as well. AI investment in wealth management is surging, though return on investment remains elusive for many firms that have yet to build the unified data infrastructure needed to make their tools function effectively, according to an F2 Strategy report from July 2026.
Data quality is the constraint on AI's potential
Universal adoption has pushed the question of data readiness to the top of the agenda.
Nearly half of Northern Trust's survey respondents identified consolidating data from multiple sources as their biggest data challenge. Front-office teams flagged sourcing and aggregating investment analytics as their primary operational pain point, a problem that scales with the number of platforms a firm operates across.
"AI is moving from experimentation to implementation across the industry," said Nick Gilbert, head of Asset Servicing, EMEA at Northern Trust. "But its value will depend on the quality, governance and accessibility of the data beneath it. This is not just a technology issue; it is an operating model and resilience issue."
The observation resonates with what leading Canadian wealth technology providers have been building toward. Canada's top wealth technology providers are prioritising strong data architecture as a defining feature of competitive platforms, according to Wealth Professional's 2026 five-star WealthTech Providers report, a recognition that the firms best positioned to serve advisors are those with clean, integrated data at their foundation.
The full Northern Trust report, Driving Growth in Asset Management 2026, is available on the Northern Trust website.
