Leading asset managers have largely deployed enterprise AI platforms, but outdated research licensing frameworks are preventing them from integrating broker research into these systems. A survey of thirty-five major buy-side firms conducted by Substantive Research and Aiera reveals that seventy-seven percent have already rolled out enterprise-wide AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, with deployments often taking four to six months to complete.
The research identifies a critical mismatch between what asset managers want to feed their AI systems and what they can legally access. Broker research ranks as the most valuable content source, cited by seventy-seven percent of respondents, outpacing earnings transcripts and market data. Yet traditional licensing agreements and entitlement structures were designed for human consumption via PDFs and proprietary portals, not machine-readable AI workflows.
This licensing bottleneck now represents the single biggest barrier to wider adoption of direct research feeds, identified by sixty-nine percent of survey participants. Compliance and entitlement requirements present additional hurdles. For brokers and research providers, the findings signal both commercial opportunity and operational urgency. Asset managers are building sophisticated AI infrastructure and actively seeking machine-readable research content, but legacy distribution models prevent integration.
Firms that modernize their licensing frameworks and delivery mechanisms to accommodate AI ingestion could capture growing demand while protecting intellectual property. Those that maintain PDF-centric models risk losing relevance as clients build internal systems that cannot legally incorporate their content.
FXnCO Insight
Brokers offering research services should urgently review licensing terms to enable machine-readable distribution, or risk watching their most valuable content become incompatible with client workflows.
Source: Finance Magnates