Introduction

Having written on 21st century desktop strategy, a natural corollary is to elevate that discussion, focusing on the financial markets landscape in terms of changes in content demand and supply and the implications for both providers and consumers. One could write in depth on all of these themes (and, in time, I might) but for now we will look over the full playing field, across all asset classes.

This is part one of a two part series, the second will explore the opportunities within content, which I briefly touched on in 21st century leadership, noting the opportunities that will arise from the current bout of fiscal recklessness we see from western governments.

Seven key themes

---

The revenge of top down: macro and domestic policy

There was a time when most investors could focus on bottom up investing, whether in bonds or equities, PE or private credit. This meant their content requirements were largely company specific, with an overlay that helped understand wider industry dynamics. Simple.

No longer.

The laissez faire of the United States has morphed into a much more French looking dirigisme, active industrial policy is now de rigeur (I will stop with the French). This isn’t a MAGA initiative, it was equally true of the 2022 Biden CHIPS act. Tariffs remain a volatile, unpredictable component in the investment performance of any company and on the world stage the relative peace of recent decades has been shattered by a land war in Ukraine, a frightening harbinger when we consider the far more unstable, multipolar international relations landscape taking shape. Perhaps most strangely, the United States is now as likely to be aggressor as defender in some future scenarios.

Beyond tariffs, changes in once stable government policies have driven huge shifts in performance by sector: threats to ACA / Obamacare, surges in US and European defense, picking winners in semis, the structural weakening of western automakers from both tariffs and the withdrawal of policy support for electric vehicles – macro is now the predominant factor in assessing performance. While perhaps not quite passengers, company management are certainly no longer masters of their own destiny. Institutional investors need an entirely new toolkit to assess geopolitical, domestic policy and other top down factors.

So far, much of this change has been addressed through research product, with quantitative solutions lagging behind. There are many excellent sources to assess risk intelligence, LSEG has a strong partnership with Eurasia group, their recent 2026 risks gives a great summary of the high level risks in our modern world. Beyond research, there remain few sources of data that rank policy risk, the risks of sustained fiscal stupidity, that can quantify the impact of geopolitical tail-risks. Whole analytics frameworks need to be built to support this new paradigm.

Data science and AI

I will not go into huge detail, but financial markets participants have been on a 30 year journey in the adoption of new technology to improve the investment decision process, AI is evolutionary, not revolutionary, when seen in this context. Factset offered Quantitative tools in the 80s, Thomson acquired QAI in 1996.

AI will alter the systematic investment process, systematic trading, the fundamental investment process (as I covered here) and automate many middle and back office processes. It will also change the ability of individuals or market participants to collect and curate content, with AI already extremely capable for data and document classification.

Thus AI will bring to market players an almost unlimited ability to collect and curate their own content, entering what was once the exclusive domain of information services firms. I will return to this theme in content monetization. AI is thus viewed as its own theme but also a technological underpinning that will change how markets and the Info Services industry adapt to other changes.

Alternative Data

There remains an interesting industry bifurcation with almost all Alt. Data aggregators ( Eagle Alpha, Yipit Data etc.) remaining standalone (though LSEG has a stake in Battlefin, Factset has an offeringand has aggregation in ALTD). Alt data and its events are, to date, a quite distinct, standalone ecosystem.

Elsewhere, the industry that has seen huge, frankly transformational, M&A for content acquisition. With Intelligence, Preqin, Visible Alpha, and Tegus all recent examples.

There are challenges, or maybe just wrinkles, to adoption in Alt Data. To some extent these help explain the tepid approach from the scale content aggregators. I would point out 4.

Despite the above, there is so much obvious value in the space – transaction data, web behavior, downloads, etc., earth imagery, geolocation, it remains a high energy, frenetic space with thousands of players and incredible innovation.

Expert Networks

What was once a small, staid industry led by GLG is today an enormous, diverse ecosystem empowering decision support in both public and private markets. Going back 25 years, demand was structurally lower, many of these conversations occurred with sellside analysts and the PE industry AUM had yet to surge. The talent follows the money and as RegFD and other factors changed the game, those super smart talents moved on from the sellside, today more likely to be employed in a Hedge Fund or PE shop.

As sellside research has reduced in size (and the average age of the analyst) Expert Networks have surged in importance, now a critical mainstream tool for the investment process, whether through calls or through accessing large transcript library’s such as Tegus (owned by AlphaSense). No doubt this is another future consolidation play as this industry converges with traditional content sources.

Strategic questions remain for these players, do they opt to integrate or do they choose to be the acquiror, becoming diversified info service players in their own right?

Banks and content monetization

While the Info Services industry continues to source new content, Banks are much more focused on squeezing a return from in-house content sources, this can be databases built up within Sellside research or Investment Banking, it may be economics or macro content, or it may be flows and other trading data – acknowledging there are data rights and important considerations on how analytics from some of these data sources can be used. The sheer volume of in-house content may, over time, make this a valuable new revenue stream and give the banks huge optionality on product strategy.

Ultimately, the data maybe monetized directly (i.e. sold) or it may be provided only to the banks customers as a benefit they get from maintaining that relationship. Beyond these new content sets, sellside teams have long produced in-house analytics for their customers, this UBS tear sheet is an excellent example.

As AI levels the playing field, reducing the need for tens of thousands of staff in outsourced locations, it seems obvious to expect large financial services firms to become more innovative in the content they create, and the paths they use to monetize, directly or indirectly.

Private Markets

Some quick definitions. Private markets represents a number of non-traded investment types, these have become much more important in recent decades as de-equitization accelerated and as professional investors and allocators sought out new, uncorrelated sources of return/yield.

• Private Equity
• Private Credit
• Infrastructure
• Real Estate
• Natural Resources

I hadn’t realized MSCI had created a taxonomy for private markets, PACS, akin to ICB, NAICS or GICS for industries, that is certainly helpful to bring clarity to a space lacking consistency of nomenclature.

There are open questions as to the sustainability of growth in these asset classes. Looking at many older vintage portfolios, the inability of PE firms to exit current investments, instead having to trade amongst themselves at dubious valuations is a significant red flag.

Whether private credit has maintained pricing and contractual discipline as assets have surged is unknown but examples in 2025 were worrying. Given these risks, I think its fair to note current valuations in private markets data don’t seem to discount the risks to the industry, and the possibility of a cyclical peak.

ESG

While open questions remain on whether private markets are at a cyclical or structural peak, it is probably more sensible to ask if ESG is at some kind of nadir, while interest remains with strong regulatory drivers in Europe, many parts of the world have reduced this focus, as domestic political and consumer priorities shift.

ESG is an umbrella term for a lot of almost unrelated analysis, proxy advice and governance is very different to (but apparently no less politicized) than diversity analytics, while sustainability and climate analytics are another huge category.

I certainly suspect that the pendulum will swing back, with reduced opposition to some of these analytics and a genuine need for greater carbon and climate analytics as the world warms and we deal with the effects of a changing climate, most obviously that will continue to be an enormous factor in both pricing and availability of insurance.

Summary

The innovation and opportunity in the content domain is profound, no doubt AI will provide further medium term accelerant. Given the wide variety of industry trends, the space remains a magnet for innovation and startups, particularly in alt data, ESG and expert networks.

Channel distribution strategies will be key in an environment where institutional players are overwhelmed by the proliferation of content sources.

While AI is reshaping investment processes, its influence on content availability and innovation is likely to be just as profound. There are obvious limits to the number of platforms a human wants to use on a daily basis (a challenge long recognized in the Wealth Advisory space) the challenge for smaller incumbents will be to determine their path to market.

Given the lower barriers to entry, we can expect to see further growth in the number of content players, they will be challenged in finding mindshare and brand recognition. Procurement teams do not want unlimited vendor relationships. Channel distribution strategies will be key in an environment where institutional players are overwhelmed by the proliferation of content sources.

As a follow on in part two next week, I’ll explore the content strategy elements itself, given all the fascinating changes and trends bubbling away, what are the options available for new analytics in the market?

---

Thanks for reading and please sign up below!