Artificial Intelligence for Asset Management and Investment

Chapter 18AI Organization and Project Management

IN PART 1 AND PART 2, WE RECOGNIZED that the AI transformation is not merely an extension of the classical era digital revolution. The underlying competitive dynamics, economics, business strategies, business models, and processes are all changing. A new reality of how to run business is emerging. In Part 1 and Part 2 we covered how to create a competitive advantage in the AI era. In this chapter we will first discuss what an AI-era organization looks like and then show how to build one. Second, we will cover the AI-related change management. Third, we will describe how to manage an AI project.

THE NEW ASSET MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION

Recently, a third dimension has been added to the age-old debate about where asset management CEOs should come from—investment or sales. The third dimension is of technology. In a recent article titled “Who Deserves to Be a CEO?” George Wilbanks, a former Russell Reynolds Associates recruiter who now runs Wilbanks Partners, commented, “In every CEO search I've recently worked on, the boards all want someone with a broader background: technology, human capital, operations, strategy experience” (Segal, 2019). On that theme, Debra Brown, a senior member of Russell Reynolds' investment management practice added, “It's likely to happen: a CEO or another senior executive coming from tech.” We can already observe the signs of evolution. Asset management firms are recognizing that with nearly all business ...