On June 12th, 2025, we were delighted to reunite over 400 leaders from the investment research industry at the Metropolitan Club in New York once again. It was our eighth annual gathering in North America, and what a fascinating day it proved to be! The accelerating pace of AI innovation now feels like a genuine revolution, bringing so many experiments to fruition that it’s frankly hard to keep track. The critical questions remain: where is the real added value created, who benefits, and, crucially, how will it all be remunerated in practice?

As ever, our panels delved into everything from the potential for regulatory alignment across North America and Europe, to the structural shifts in research demand and diversity, and, of course, the monumental potential of AI alongside its accompanying Intellectual Property (IP), HR, commercial and compliance concerns. Whilst the following insights sometimes contradict each other, they demonstrate the healthy debate amongst key market stakeholders over the course of the day.

Here are the key takeaways from the day:

1. The sell-side is actively exploring how to meet buy-side demands for direct feeds into Large Language Models (LLMs) whilst protecting their IP.

The pervasive influence of AI was a central theme, with panellists noting that the success of generative AI has spurred both buy and sell-side firms to engage, with initial experiments graduating to new structural workflows. Speakers acknowledged the steep increase in buy side demand for direct content feeds into their proprietary LLMs. For the sell side, this raises critical questions about protecting their IP and ensuring proper monetisation. Firms are reluctant to simply hand over their “secret sauce” and are working to develop controlled distribution models, as evidenced by recent industry collaborations. While they understand the buy side’s need for efficiency, the sell side needs to understand how its work is being used, redistributed, and repurposed. The buy side also understands this, but is wary of market-data-style, use case driven licensing models. The market is exploring solutions that allow scalable, efficient content consumption whilst ensuring attribution, reporting, and guardrails are in place, but there is a lot of work and crucially detailed communication to be done between stakeholders.

Despite the rapid advancements in AI, the consensus was clear that the fundamental value of direct, one-on-one interactions with corporates and analysts remains paramount. On the corporate access side, non-deal roadshows (NDRs) offer a depth of conversation and insight often lacking in larger conferences. Corporates are likely to refuse to allow recordings of meetings due to concerns about information aging, being taken out of context, and downstream control, further underlining how some things won’t change in the new research world.

2. AI is transforming the skillsets that new sell side associates will need, though the path to creating the next generation of ‘rockstar analysts’ remains uncertain.

The role of the analyst is undoubtedly changing, shifting from trawling thousands of 10Ks or mundane data extraction to more nuanced, higher-alpha activities. The analyst of the future could be 50% advisor and 50% data scientist. But how do we train the next generation of analysts if the foundational tasks, the very “doing” where so much learning happens, are automated? 

Whilst AI turbocharges efficiency, the human overlay will be more valuable than ever, and if a one-on-one meeting with a highly ranked analyst still moves the money in future, how compatible is that with the more technical skill sets that the next generation of senior analysts will possess? Will communications training be even more important in the future than it is now?

3. The UK and the EU will return to Commission Sharing Arrangements (CSA)-funded Research Budgets over the Mid-term.

There has been a notable shift in sentiment over the last two months – there’s a palpable interest in moving towards client-funded research via CSAs as confidence grows that this will turn into an industry-wide trend. At the conference we saw how industry consensus moves in real time, as firms saw how engaged their peers were in exploring the shift across! Whilst the transition poses challenges, particularly around client conversations, and navigating the differing implementation timings between the UK (all done and ready to go) and the EU (mid-2026 when the rules will be fully implemented at a national regulator level), the long-term goal for global asset managers remains a single, consistent global process. Speakers were quick to clarify that this shift isn’t expected to magically reflate research budgets, but rather to facilitate easier access to new analysts and providers, unwinding some of the reticence seen in recent years.

It is still true that the exclusion of corporate access from the FCA’s joint payment rules limits enthusiasm amongst a group of asset managers, but despite these complexities the overall outlook points to 2026 being the year when a large proportion of European Assets Under Management (AUM) moves to CSA-funded research. This moves firms to ensuring that they are complying with guardrails, ensuring appropriate disclosures, paying reasonable amounts to providers, and treating clients fairly (TCF) with their new approach. (There will be an article addressing TCF coming up from us soon.) 

4. Transparency

The “transparency as currency” theme resonated strongly throughout the day, with buy siders acknowledging that providing granular feedback differentiates them and encourages better service. This isn’t just about votes; it’s about sharing what truly adds value, allowing the sell side to resource clients more effectively and invest in areas that genuinely move the needle.  For this to accelerate, some said that the buy side needs to feel confident that the information they are sharing isn’t being “weaponised”, driving complaints and numerous queries from brokers into their portfolio manager – brokers and Independent Research Providers (IRPs) will be dealt with differently, based on how they respond to greater detail from their asset manager clients. 

While larger firms often provide robust, data-driven feedback through scorecards and broker reviews, concerns persist regarding smaller firms who may struggle with resourcing, or cultural buy-in from investment professionals. At all levels in the market the sell side thinks there is still progress to be made in terms of understanding the impact of their analysts. Even where more sophisticated approaches exist, the information often still needs to be pieced together to understand which analysts are really penetrating clients’ investment processes. The buy side were also interested in more detail – asking for more granular insights into areas of scarcity – for example in corporate access in terms of exactly where requests far outweigh ability to supply. 

5. Data costs continue their annual ascent, necessitating technology for greater efficiency, agnostic procurement, and seamless integration with research inputs for an accountable investment function.

A stark reality highlighted was the unsustainable annual increase in market data costs for ratings, indexes, ESG and terminals, with prices projected to rise by 15% whilst budgets are only set to creep up by 3%. Market data consumers often find themselves as “price takers” due to a lack of viable alternatives and significant friction in displacing embedded vendors, leading to “unsustainable” cost paths for financial firms. This contrasts with research, where consumers often act as “price-setters” through rigorous valuation processes.

The need to have a holistic view across all inputs that contribute to the investment process is accelerating the integration of research and data budgeting and procurement teams, blurring the lines between what traditionally sits in each bucket. Technology is proving crucial here, enabling firms to use data more efficiently, become more agnostic in their procurement (reducing reliance on entrenched vendors), and integrating diverse inputs. 

The challenge for firms is not just acquiring more data, but having the internal infrastructure to extract value from existing vendors. AI is accelerating the integration of these content types, providing consumers with greater leverage and flexibility in how they source and receive information. The move towards cloud-based solutions and agnostic platforms is seen as crucial to overcome the entrenched, siloed systems that have dominated the industry for decades and enable easier switching between providers.

All eyes on November 5th

This conference left us feeling like the pace of change in the research industry had accelerated enormously in the last 12 months, with fundamental evolution in workflows, required skill sets, funding approaches, delivery channels and commercial dynamics all happening simultaneously. We can’t wait to bring the research community back together on November 5th in London – do come and join us!