2026 ICI Innovate: How AI Is Reshaping the Asset Management Industry
ICI President and CEO Eric Pan in conversation with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce during the Enabling Innovation Through Thoughtful Regulation fireside chat.
Operations and technology teams are leading much of the transformation happening in asset management firms. Last week, more than 370 operations and technology professionals attended the third annual ICI Innovate conference in Houston to discuss the transformations that AI, digital assets, and other new technologies are driving across the sector. One of the main conference themes was the duality of innovation—the idea that while innovation is creating opportunities and propelling the asset management industry forward, it is critical to keep an eye on the risks, threats, and unintended consequences of these rapid technological advances in order to protect investors.
The need for clear regulatory guardrails was driven home during a virtual fireside chat between ICI President and CEO Eric Pan and SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce. Commissioner Peirce provided the regulator’s perspective on AI, noting how it's already shaping everything from proxy voting to tailored portfolios. However, she also stressed the need for the human touch to guide work and processes. Over the next few years, Commissioner Peirce expects the regulatory community will continue to get more involved in the space and pay closer attention to AI developments.
She also reiterated the importance of the SEC receiving input from operations professionals during the rulemaking process, especially as the agency develops guardrails for newer technologies:
Operations is sort of key to making all of these rules work. And so it doesn't help much if we're hearing the answers after the fact, after the rules are already adopted and the implementation period has begun. We really need to hear from people as we're thinking about these rules, as we're designing them, so that we can design them with the operational constraints in mind.
Panelists in conversation during the Unified Approach: Operations and Technology in Lockstep panel.
The Promise and the Peril of AI
AI—and how it’s reshaping the future of work—was one of the hottest topics at the conference. During the Unified Approach: Operations and Technology in Lockstep panel, panelist Bob Suh of OnCorps AI observed that many of us are thinking of AI all wrong:
“AI is statistics. It’s math. Don’t think of it like software or technology. What AI does is it tries to optimize for an objective and tries to predict something with an accuracy rate. An AI-first mindset isn’t knowing all the tools…having an AI-first mindset is more like having an outcome, statistical mindset.”
During the Evolving Role of the CIO/CTO panel, the discussion revolved around managing the human side of technological change and innovation. Even though we’re in the early days of AI, the panelists noted that the technology has the potential to reinvent every process and workflow, while also acknowledging that with such groundbreaking change comes fear. In the era of AI, many employees have fears driven by potential inaccuracies and false positives from large language models; there’s also generalized anxiety around job security and what will happen in the future. Panelist Monica Khurana, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer at Dodge & Cox, offered advice on how to be successful in an AI-driven world by focusing on softer skills in the workplace, such as relationship building and establishing trust.
Panelists during the closing panel of 2026 ICI Innovate, Testing the Limits of Operational Resilience.
The Risks at the Intersection of AI, Blockchain, and Cyber
The final session of 2026 ICI Innovate highlighted why it’s critical to strengthen operational resilience amidst risks such as cyber threats, natural disasters, service interruptions and vendor outages, and the challenges of settlement cycle compression. The panelists discussed the importance of gathering a group of cross-functional professionals from across the industry for tabletop exercises, like the one ICI conducted in July, to simulate and prepare for emerging threats and crisis scenarios. As panelist and IT leader Tami Morrison said, these tabletop exercises are all about continuous improvement: “You plan, prepare, test, document, repeat.”
As AI reshapes the risk landscape, conferences such as Innovate are crucial to staying up-to-date and convening industry experts to share perspectives and lessons learned on risk management and organizational resiliency.
Don't Miss Our Next Conference
ICI’s busy 2026 conference season is just kicking off. Don't miss our next conference, the Investment Management Conference (IMC) in Palm Desert, CA, from March 22 to 25. Register today for legal and regulatory insights and excellent networking opportunities.