Originally published: Alternatives Watch, 13 August 2026
Asset managers are increasingly adopting AI but doubt their own readiness to use it effectively, according to new research from Clearwater Analytics.
Nearly two-thirds (67%) of respondents to the GenAI and the Data Divide study, said they worry they lack the skills and experience to deploy AI effectively. More than half separately flagged internal culture and resistance to change as a drag on adoption.
Souvik Das, chief technology officer at Clearwater Analytics, said the pattern across every risk category traces back to one thing: firms don’t yet fully trust the data behind their AI systems. He said skills gaps, culture, governance, and compliance concerns all point to that same source rather than standing as separate problems.
Trust in the data
Two-thirds of respondents cited concerns about data governance, reliability, and integrity. A similar share pointed to operational risk, and 64% flagged concerns about model transparency, explainability and bias as AI plays a larger role in investment decisions. Hallucination risk, where AI generates plausible-sounding but false information and presents it as true, worried 62% of respondents. A recent Ocorian survey identified a similar governance gap earlier this month in private equity, where widespread AI use in compliance work has outpaced formal policy.
Implementation costs concerned 64% of respondents, on par with the governance and operational worries above. Financial and regulatory risk were the least-cited concerns in the survey. MSCI‘s 2026 General Partner Survey found a similar concern-readiness split among GPs, where 52% worried about rapid technological change but only 36% felt adequately prepared to manage it.
Still, just 16% of Clearwater’s respondents said they weren’t prepared for AI-enabled operational risk, and 15% said the same of risks arising from skills gaps, suggesting concern is considerably more widespread than outright assessments of unpreparedness.
The GenAI and the Data Divide survey was conducted in March. Independent research agency Pureprofile surveyed 178 senior executives at insurance asset managers, hedge funds, private markets specialists, and general asset managers across Europe, the U.S., and Asia on Clearwater’s behalf.
