How Advances in Technology Are Changing the Asset Management Industry

In the summer of 2025, Citrin Cooperman polled 300 senior leaders of asset management firms across the United States to explore their most pressing challenges and opportunities. Our survey respondents span sectors including private equity, venture capital, private credit funds, and hedge funds. It is no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services, robotic process automation (RPA), and blockchain have all had an indelible impact on the asset management industry and are top of mind for investment managers.

Creating Efficiencies with Technology

The wider adoption of cryptocurrencies through both public and private funds has created a new asset class and more efficient ways to transfer capital globally. AI in financial services can be used in the front office to analyze vast data sets, identifying early signals for investment opportunities or risks within minutes, rather than having a group of analysts spend days on the same subset of data.

More than 50% of our survey respondents anticipate adding front office talent within the next year, even though they're simultaneously planning to adopt AI and other technologies. Only 10% noted that they plan on decreasing their head count. Managers are not only using technologies such as AI and RPA internally but also working with their portfolio companies to create efficiencies in their business processes, resulting in stronger performance and added investor value on exits.

Blockchain creates a single source of truth, which can cut down on back-office time and energy and record keeping once it's effectively structured. Fifty-six percent of our survey respondents intend to use tokenization as a strategy in lieu of traditional exits, which was shortly behind secondary funds and continuation vehicles.

Leveraging Tokenization

Tokenization is the process of converting ownership rights of real world or financial assets into digital tokens recorded on a blockchain, which is an enhancement to securitization that has been used for decades. The tokens represent fractional shares of assets. Each token acts as a secure programmable unit of ownership that can be traded, transferred, or used as collateral.

These tokens can be traded globally within the market that's open for business 24/7. With the softening of the regulatory environment, more broadly for crypto and blockchain, we could see an uptick in tokenized asset adoption in the near future. These assets can provide additional liquidity as well as access to a broader range of investors, unlocking some of the retail channels historically reserved for larger managers.

Focus on Cybersecurity

The increased adoption and implementation of advanced technologies is urging business leaders to put an additional focus on cybersecurity. Advances in technology create the potential for complex cybersecurity issues such as sophisticated fraud and synthetic identity creation, AI powered phishing and business email compromising adversarial attacks on AI, fraud detection systems and chat bot data breaches, just to name a few.

Investors are increasingly focused on cybersecurity policies and practices when considering allocation. Cost effective strategies to reduce the risk of the most common type of cyber-attacks include providing employees with ongoing cybersecurity awareness training, simulated spear phishing simulations, and access to security policies. To remain competitive in today’s market, it is imperative for leadership to leverage the many benefits of AI while minimizing the associated risk of cyberattacks.

Prepare for the Future with Citrin Cooperman

Is your business prepared to keep pace with the evolving demands of a rapidly changing technological environment? Citrin Cooperman’s Financial Services Industry Practice is well equipped to provide custom solutions for asset managers. For more information, reach out to Jacob Rose.

For more insights into the trends and challenges facing this sector today, be on the lookout for our 2026 Asset Management Survey Report.