The vast majority of fiduciary managers are now using artificial intelligence (AI), but adoption remains focused on low-risk operational activity rather than core investment decision-making, according to new research from Isio.
Research conducted in August 2025 across 13 leading fiduciary management firms, collectively responsible for £241bn of assets, found that 85% are using AI in some form. However, its use is largely limited to efficiency-driven applications, with few firms yet integrating AI into higher-impact investment processes.
The most common use cases include drafting internal memos and summarising commentary, cited by 91% of respondents, followed by reviewing legal documents at 73% and coding at 64%. By contrast, just 9% of fiduciary managers using AI currently deploy it in the trading of client assets.
“We are rapidly approaching a stage of new AI capabilities, which could lead to greater AI integration and potentially change how decisions are made.”
Anthony Webb, Isio
Isio said this reflected the early stage of many firms’ AI strategies. Fewer than a quarter of respondents (23%) said they had a detailed AI strategy in place, while 62% said they had early-stage plans to integrate AI more fully into business operations. A further 8% reported having no AI strategy and no plans to develop one.
While fiduciary managers are not currently using AI to make independent trading decisions, Isio noted that the technology was already being used within some underlying funds, particularly in quantitative and high-frequency trading strategies. Over time, it believes AI could play a more meaningful role in areas such as fund selection, where fiduciary managers hold extensive comparative data, although portfolio construction remains the most challenging area for effective AI application.
Anthony Webb, head of fiduciary clients at Isio, said current adoption was focused on augmenting existing processes rather than replacing judgement. “At the moment, this means augmenting existing processes, aiming to make things more efficient, and the benefit for clients will be felt as cost savings,” he said.
However, Webb added that future developments could be more disruptive. “We are rapidly approaching a stage of new AI capabilities, which could lead to greater AI integration and potentially change how decisions are made and based on much broader datasets,” he explained, while cautioning that “there is no magic solution to make us all rich”.
