Global Asset and Wealth Management Survey

Asset Wealth Management
  • Insight
  • 26 minute read
  • Februar 24, 2025

Die aktuelle PwC Global Asset & Wealth Management Survey verdeutlicht, wie stark bahnbrechende Technologien die Branche prägen. Künstliche Intelligenz gilt dabei als Wachstumstreiber und soll gemeinsam mit Tokenisierung die Investmentwelt neu definieren. 

In einer sich rasch wandelnden Finanzlandschaft spielen disruptive Technologien eine Schlüsselrolle. Unsere Umfrage zeigt, dass sich 80 % der befragten Vermögensverwalter durch neue Technologien einen deutlichen Umsatzanstieg erwarten. Zudem gehen 84 % von einer gesteigerten betrieblichen Effizienz aus.

Besonders KI, generative KI, Cloud-Technologien, Big Data und Blockchain gelten als Katalysatoren für Innovationen in Produkten und Dienstleistungen. Die Veränderungen beschränken sich jedoch nicht nur auf Middle- und Back-Office-Prozesse, auch die Art der Kundeninteraktion wird durch technologische Fortschritte neu definiert. Um wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben, setzen 81 % der Vermögensverwalter auf Fusionen, Übernahmen oder Kooperationen, um ihre technologischen Fähigkeiten auszubauen und wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben. Zugleich zeigt die Umfrage jedoch eine Diskrepanz zwischen Ambition und Investition: 68 % der Befragten planen weniger als ein Sechstel ihres Budgets für transformative Technologien ein – eine Lücke, die langfristig über Erfolg oder Rückstand in der Branche entscheiden könnte.

"Disruptive Technologien transformieren das Asset- und Wealth-Management grundlegend. Sie steigern Umsatz, Produktivität und Effizienz und erfordern zugleich strategische Neuausrichtungen. Der Aufbau technologiegetriebener Ökosysteme, die Integration von KI und die gezielte Weiterbildung der Mitarbeitenden sind entscheidend, um langfristig wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben"

Thomas Steinbauer,COO und Asset & Wealth Management Leader von PwC Österreich

A tech-driven ecosystem

The revenue potential stretches from product innovation and opening up new markets to offering tech-as-a-service to other ecosystem players, including platforms for product distribution, portfolio management, and risk and data analytics. According to our analysis, tech-as-a-service could on its own deliver a 12% boost to revenues for AWM organisations that move quickly to embrace the potential. 

Opening up the mass-affluent market 

Disruptive tech is also bringing AWM organisations closer to what for many would be the ultimate prize—delivering personalised high-net-worth (HNW)–style financial solutions to a vast and still largely untapped mass-affluent market, which consists of individuals with moderate investable assets. More than seven out of ten asset and wealth managers (72%) believe that disruptive tech will lead to a shift in customer preferences towards tech-enabled solutions. 

Capitalising on the great wealth transfer 

This shift in customer preferences is expected to be especially marked among a younger generation of investors, who’ve become accustomed to high levels of tech-enabled engagement, experience and hyper-personalisation—many of whom will be the beneficiaries of an intergenerational transfer of wealth, estimated at US$68 trillion over the next decade. They’re also seeking out brands that reflect their values in areas such as sustainability and social inclusion, underlining the strategic interplay between disruptive tech and other megatrends, including climate change and demographic shifts.

Breaking out of the squeeze

The big question is whether AWM organisations are moving far and fast enough to capitalise on the opportunities and keep pace with the tech-driven shake-up in their industry. Most asset and wealth managers (68%) currently allocate less than one-sixth of their total capital expenditure to innovative and potentially transformative technologies. The question is especially pressing for a potentially ‘squeezed middle’ set of companies that generally lack both the scale and sizeable investment budgets of their larger counterparts and the targeted niche focus of specialist players. (See our five-point plan for these companies, ‘How can the squeezed middle keep pace?’ below.)

Rethinking value propositions

The findings from our survey of 257 institutional investors, including insurance companies, pension funds, endowments and family offices, further underline the urgent need to rethink investment strategies—and, ultimately, value propositions. When asked whether they believe that disruptive tech could make it easier to access investments and hence reduce their reliance on asset managers, 59% of these respondents said yes. 

Institutional investors are coming to expect tech-enhanced capabilities like data-enabled insight, adaptability and customisation. Six out of ten hold regular discussions with their asset managers on how technological innovations are incorporated into investment strategies. Institutional investors are also stepping up their own investment in disruptive tech in areas such as real-time risk monitoring, advanced market trend forecasting and efficient portfolio rebalancing. 

Why act now?

Amid shifting investor demands and rapid technological progress, organisations need to pursue growth beyond their traditional business model for their long-term viability. 

Accordingly, this report is structured around four broad action areas designed to harness the growth potential of disruptive technologies:

1. Make tech a value creator

Innovate products, expand into private markets, engage mass-affluent clients, and break down silos in your data management.

2. Collaborate to compete

Forge strategic partnerships within ecosystems, support smaller players, maximise ROI and manage third-party risks.

3. Reimagine talent and skills

Accelerate upskilling in your workforce, harness tech-driven workforce value, and shape future roles and career paths.

4. Build confidence in disruptive tech

Enhance visibility, bolster protection, and prioritise cybersecurity across your organisation.

1. Tokenisierung als Wachstumstreiber

Die Studie prognostiziert, dass das global verwaltete Vermögen bis 2028 auf 171 Billionen US-Dollar steigen soll - eine jährliche Wachstumsrate von 5,9 %. Besonders dynamisch entwickelt sich der Bereich der Tokenisierung, also die Digitalisierung von Vermögenswerten: Hier wird ein sprunghafter Anstieg von derzeit 40 Milliarden US-Dollar auf über 317 Milliarden US-Dollar im Jahr 2028 prognostiziert, was einer jährlichen Wachstumsrate von 51 % entspricht. 

Trotz dieses enormen Potenzials bleibt die Branche bislang zögerlich: Nur 18 % der Vermögensverwalter bieten derzeit digitale Vermögenswerte an. Diese Produkte stehen also noch ganz am Anfang, doch das Interesse wächst. Acht von zehn der Befragten, die digitale Anlagen anbieten, verzeichnen bereits steigende Kapitalzuflüsse. Die Tokenisierung steckt zwar noch in den Anfängen, könnte aber schon bald die Art und Weise, wie Vermögenswerte verwaltet und gehandelt werden, revolutionieren. 

Leveraging technology to drive product innovation

One focus of growth-driving innovation is the new generation of tokenised products. In our baseline scenario, AuM in tokenised investment funds (including mutual funds and alternatives, excluding mandates) is projected to increase from US$40 billion in 2023 to more than US$317 billion by 2028. Although that represents a small portion of the overall market, it is growing at an impressive CAGR of more than 50%—driven by the need for heightened liquidity, improved transparency and broader investment access, especially within alternative funds, which could include private equity, real estate, commodities and other non-traditional assets.

Further openings include expanding into digital asset classes as regulatory restrictions ease. This would allow AWM organisations to diversify portfolios, tap into uncorrelated asset classes and attract a new generation of tech-savvy clients. Less than a fifth (18%) of asset and wealth managers in our survey currently offer digital assets as part of their product offering. It’s early days for these products, but investor interest is increasing. Eight out of ten of the asset and wealth managers that offer digital assets report a rise in inflows. 

 

Boosting revenues with technology-as a-service

Offering technology and data analysis services to other AWM organisations is another potential source of revenue. Our analysis indicates that tech-as-a-service offerings could open up growth of up to 12% by 2028 for early adopters. Trailblazers include firms that have seen notable growth in their sales of cloud-based portfolio management, risk analytics and wealth management tools. Asset managers are also aiming for future earnings through the sale of tech platforms, including advisory, pension services and more.

Pursuing the booming mass-affluent market

A potent mix of regulatory changes and the proliferation of technology is helping to crack open the door to the mass-affluent segment, which is set to see the second largest expansion in AuM according to our projections, outpaced only by the HNW segment.

 

Disruptive tech enables apps and platforms that let retail investors buy small stakes in private markets or tokenised funds. Tokenised fractional ownership could expand the market openings by lowering minimum investments and allowing otherwise illiquid assets to be traded on secondary markets. Our survey underscores the significant interest in tokenised private markets assets among both asset managers and institutional investors, with more than half of each group favouring private equity as the top tokenised asset class. 

 

Making democratisation work for clients

With democratisation comes heightened regulatory and investor demands in areas such as customer understanding and the delivery of appropriate outcomes. Disruptive tech can help meet these expectations in a customised and cost-effective way by allowing more data about a client’s objectives, risk appetite and capacity for risk to be analysed, more quickly, across a much bigger client base. But the potential is still untapped. For instance, only 20% of asset and wealth managers are currently using disruptive tech to enhance personalised investment advisory. 

As PwC’s Wealth Management Insights 2024 highlights, the other key foundation for retail expansion into private markets is meeting investor demands for a hybrid advice model that combines digital and in-person interaction. Disruptive tech can make the biggest difference in client profiling, analysis and insight, so advisors can focus on the human touch—and serve more clients.

Data integration as the differentiator 

A full 59% of asset and wealth managers are currently adopting or considering big data analytics for their investment operations, which highlights the crucial role of both structured data (organised and easily searchable) and unstructured data (raw and unorganised) in driving innovation. Only through robust data integration can firms realise the revenue and cost-saving benefits of technologies like GenAI, including fund profitability analysis. 

However, realising the upside of a data-driven organisation is as much about culture and organisation as it is about technology. In often siloed AWM organisations, the starting point is breaking down the data demarcations between business areas such as sales, finance and investment management to create an aligned, integrated, information-led approach. 

The other big priority is aligning analytics initiatives with business objectives to help maximise viable value. Typical examples could include assessing the impact of new asset classes on portfolio construction or deepening your understanding of what new generations of investors and employees value. 

If larger AWM organisations are becoming tech- and data-driven businesses, how can smaller and less well-resourced counterparts—including those in the squeezed middle—develop strategies to compete? Five priorities stand out.

  1. Leverage data and disruptive tech. Make the most of advances in tech and data—including open-source options—to enhance client experience and customise solutions while boosting scale and driving down costs. 
  2. Target the mass-affluent market. Reach out to mass-affluent investors with digitally enhanced platforms that offer a combination of automated and human advice. 
  3. Build investor values into the offer. Target the growing demand for values-led investing by integrating factors such as sustainability and social inclusion into mainstream offerings to attract both institutional and retail investors.
  4. Partner to acquire key talent and tech. Partner with fintechs and managed service and tech-as-a-service providers to acquire and scale up the necessary tech capabilities in a fast, cost-effective way. 
  5. Outsource non-core operations. Outsourcing non-core operations allows the business to focus on standout strengths, and can improve agility and fixed costs at the same time.

2. Talente als Schlüssel

Nicht Systeme, sondern Menschen treiben Innovation voran und schöpfen das volle Potenzial neuer Technologien aus. Deshalb sehen Asset- und Wealth-Management-Unternehmen den Zugang zu hochqualifizierten Fachkräften als zentralen Treiber für Fusionen und Übernahmen in den kommenden Jahren. Gleichzeitig zeigt die Studie eine klare Herausforderung: Fast ein Drittel der Befragten beklagt einen Mangel an relevanten Fähigkeiten und Talenten.

Um wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben, ist eine gezielte Investition in Aus- und Weiterbildung unerlässlich. Doch hier besteht noch Nachholbedarf: Nur 39 % der Asset- und Wealth-Manager:innen qualifizieren ihre Mitarbeitenden aktiv für den Umgang mit neuen Technologien. Besonders Schulungen in KI oder Open-Source-Technologien sind bislang kaum etabliert – eine Lücke, die es zu schließen gilt, um den digitalen Wandel erfolgreich zu gestalten. 

Some AWM organisations are placing their bets on specific technologies as they look to drive innovation and differentiation. But across the market as a whole, as players balance their performance expectations against risks such as bias, security and ethics, there is a growing recognition that the spearhead for change isn’t a particular technology or ‘killer app’—not even GenAI. 

Rather, the convergence of disruptive technologies is reinventing everything and putting pressure on existing tech and data infrastructure. More than half of asset and wealth managers see their organisation’s lack of appropriate technology infrastructure (58%) as a hurdle in adopting disruptive tech.

Creating a springboard for modernisation 

Cloud adoption has long been a prerequisite for broader tech integrations and applications. The fact that so many AWM organisations are only beginning to consider a move suggests that AWM is behind the curve compared to other sectors. Cloud platforms can accelerate transformation by providing a fast, accessible and scalable plug-and-play entry point for a range of technologies, including AI, GenAI, distributed ledger technology, internet of things, and big data analytics. 

71% of asset and wealth managers believe cloud infrastructure and technology will shape the future of the industry over the next two to three years.

How can AWM organisations make the most of the cloud potential? PwC’s 2024 Cloud and AI Business Survey identified a top-performing 12% of respondents who are realising the greatest return on their investment. The key differentiator is aligning AI and cloud modernisation with strategy-led implementation, rather than seeing it as simply a tech priority. Top performers also take care in choosing and building relationships with their cloud service providers.

Harnessing the ecosystem 

Against this backdrop, 81% of asset and wealth managers are contemplating strategic partnerships, consolidations, or mergers and acquisitions to enhance their technological capabilities. 

Larger players are accessing selective talent and technology from start-ups and scale-ups, either through acquisition or joint ventures, to speed up development and market rollout. Although small and midsize managers can’t match the investment of larger counterparts, they can harness fintech, managed service, tech-as-a-service and other ecosystem partners to provide the capabilities they need. The extended ecosystems that these relationships are creating not only enable smaller players to bring their systems up to speed quickly but also allow for greater outsourcing of non-core operations to more efficient and cost-effective partners.

These ecosystem dynamics mean that many organisations are navigating new and unfamiliar operating models; market scanning for optimal partners and fostering collaboration have become essential core competencies. The shift may necessitate appointing a chief collaboration officer, or similar role, to ensure enterprise-wide applicability.

Businesses must also refine their models to stand out and deliver maximum value within the network. Achieving this requires aligning a strategic operating model with business ambitions—in particular, developing interoperability throughout the tech stack for seamless collaboration across the ecosystem. By embracing crowdsourced innovation and open-source technology, companies can achieve greater agility and cost efficiency compared to traditional ways of working.

Helping smaller players deliver

Small service providers, which include fintechs and other third parties, often lack the operational capabilities to scale up their developments to meet the demands of larger partners. They may also lack the experience and expertise to meet regulatory demands within AWM. Support from larger partners is therefore critical. Regulators in the EU, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia have launched sandbox trials that allow fintechs to test innovations and connect with larger financial services organisations. There are also examples of operational collaborations in which a senior executive from the larger partner takes a seat on the board and provides guidance on development and regulation.

Driving return on investment

AWM organisations face the costs, challenges and risks of retiring legacy systems and modernising their capabilities, while integrating what is likely to be diffuse and complex tech infrastructure. If functionality falls short of expectations or fails altogether, confidence will quickly evaporate. That’s why it’s important to swiftly integrate multiple systems and surrounding innovations, focus implementation on clearly defined business needs, and be responsive to dynamic conditions. Furthermore, disruptive technologies implemented well could, according to asset and wealth managers in our survey, generate cost savings of up to 15%.

It’s also important to establish robust monitoring mechanisms. The majority (73%) of asset and wealth managers already measure the effectiveness of disruptive tech through user feedback and satisfaction surveys, regular performance tracking (57%), and the reduction of manual errors and inefficiencies through digital solutions (56%).

Step up the spotlight on third-party risk

Because a business is only as operationally secure and resilient as the weakest link in its supply chain, a more systematic approach to third-party risk management is absolutely critical. The focus on third-party governance has been given further impetus by regulatory scrutiny, including the EU’s incoming Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). Many AWM organisations may lack the resources to carry out the necessary supplier due diligence and oversight and may need to adopt a managed service option.

3. Vertrauen in disruptive Technologien stärken

Die transformative Kraft disruptiver Technologien entfaltet sich nur dann vollständig, wenn Vertrauen besteht – in die Technologie selbst, in ihren verantwortungsvollen Einsatz und in den Schutz sensibler Daten. Doch genau hier bestehen noch große Vorbehalte: 67 % der Vermögensverwalter äußern Bedenken hinsichtlich der Genauigkeit technologiegestützter Entscheidungen, was zu einem der größten Hemmnisse für deren Einführung wird. Auch Cyberrisiken stehen im Fokus: 54 % befürchten, dass disruptive Technologien ihre Cybersicherheitsmaßnahmen erheblich beeinträchtigen könnten. 

Um diese Hürden zu überwinden, gewinnen neben Compliance-Richtlinien auch ethische Standards wie Datenschutz, Sicherheit und Transparenz zunehmend an Bedeutung. Eine offene und klare Kommunikation mit Kunden und Investoren über den Einsatz KI-gestützter Tools und Modelle ist dabei entscheidend, um Vertrauen zu stärken und Akzeptanz zu fördern. 

Für Asset- und Wealth-Management-Unternehmen ist es unerlässlich, sich aktiv mit den Potenzialen disruptiver Technologien auseinanderzusetzen. Institutionelle Investoren sehen hier bereits eine Chance, einen direkteren Zugang zu Anlagemöglichkeiten zu erhalten und ihre Abhängigkeit von traditionellen Vermögensverwaltern zu verringern. Diese Entwicklung könnte die gesamte Branche grundlegend verändern und die Beziehungen zwischen Investoren und Vermögensverwaltern neu definieren. 

"Die Studie zeigt, dass die Asset- und Wealth-Management-Branche ihre Strategien grundlegend überdenken muss. Langfristige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit erfordert eine kontinuierliche Transformation der Geschäfts- und Betriebsmodelle – verbunden mit signifikanten Investitionen in Technologie und Innovation. Besonders im Hinblick auf jüngere Generationen als Anlegerzielgruppe wird die Nachfrage nach digitalen und effizienten Finanzlösungen weiter zunehmen"

Thomas Steinbauer,COO und Asset & Wealth Management Leader von PwC Österreich

People, not systems, drive innovation and make the most of technology. Accordingly, AWM organisations see access to skilled expertise as the top driver for M&A over the next two to three years, and almost one-third of respondents from these organisations say they currently lack relevant skills and talent.

 

Accelerating upskilling and reskilling

The need to bring capabilities up to speed requires more than increased investment in upskilling and reskilling. Currently, only 39% of asset and wealth managers are upskilling their internal workforce specifically to leverage new technologies. What’s more, some of the needed capabilities—for example, training and prompting AI and the ability to harness open-source technology—will be new, and likely outside of their current upskilling programmes. There is also widespread frustration over the limited skills development offered by employers, which is spurring many employees to seek opportunities elsewhere. PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2024 revealed a strong appetite among employees to acquire and develop new tech-focused skills.

 

Realising the tech-powered value potential of your workforce

The talent dynamics could be far more complicated than leaders at many AWM organisations assume. Disruptive tech is going to deliver a lot of the analysis that portfolio analysts have long provided, before they progressed to investment managers. Indeed, portfolio management is near the top of the list of the functions targeted for cost savings by the AWM organisations in our survey.

Rather than disappear, however, the portfolio analyst role is more likely to evolve. The clear conclusion from PwC’s latest AI Jobs Barometer is that people won’t be replaced by machines so much as by people skilled in leveraging the potential of AI, big data and other disruptive tech.

There could be costs for AWM organisations that see disruptive tech as primarily a way to accomplish the same tasks with fewer workers. These companies are at risk of winning the cost battle but losing the growth war, and they could end up sacrificing a critical component of reinvention: innovative talent.

Shaping roles and career paths for a new world

If most roles—portfolio analyst included—evolve, how can AWM organisations utilise the new capabilities and time freed up? A good starting point is developing proactive plans for reskilling people whose jobs will either go or radically change. It’s also important to reimagine entry-level roles for the investment managers of the future (as seen in the mock job ad above). Early movers will not only be in a stronger position to attract, develop and make the most of this talent but also to draw from a wider recruitment pool that includes more than traditional analysts.

Empowering your people

Harnessing the potential of disruptive tech demands a cultural change as well, built around empowerment, innovation and creativity. 

The first step is encouraging wary staff to embrace the benefits of disruptive tech. Emphasise the opportunities for them to reimagine their roles and what they can accomplish within them. Encourage new attitudes towards activities such as experimentation; successful employees will embrace a readiness to try new ways of doing things, even if there is a risk of failure. 

The move from an enterprise to ecosystem view of operations and offerings will also challenge prevailing assumptions. New priorities include being able to work collaboratively and productively with partners while protecting and enhancing the interests of your own enterprise.

4. Build confidence in disruptive tech

Unleashing the transformative power of disruptive tech ultimately depends on trust—trust in the technology, trust that it’s being used responsibly and trust that sensitive data is properly protected. Notably, 67% of asset and wealth managers cite concerns about the accuracy of decisions made by technology as the primary hurdle in adopting disruptive tech within their firms.

Strengthening visibility and protection

As AWM organisations embrace disruptive tech, investors will benefit from—and be motivated by—enhanced transparency and engagement through real-time access to investment data and performance metrics. 

However, this shift towards greater transparency also raises concerns about cybersecurity and data privacy, especially within today’s extended ecosystems. More than half of asset and wealth managers (54%) say that disruptive technologies would significantly impact their cybersecurity measures. The AWM sector, like other segments of the financial services industry such as insurance and banking, will need to adapt its regulatory frameworks to ensure robust protection of client information and maintain the integrity of their systems.

In this new world, reactive compliance frameworks aren’t enough on their own. Priorities include the development and embedding of an ethical framework that addresses data privacy, security, algorithmic bias and transparency. It’s also important to provide clear communication to clients and investors about the technological tools and AI models used.

Making cybersecurity an organisation-wide priority

Cyber vulnerabilities will inevitably increase as data proliferates and more of the operations, decisions and stakeholder interactions become tech-enabled. So, it’s important to foster organisation-wide understanding and responsibility for managing the risks. As PwC’s 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights highlights, the organisations that are successfully doing so are experiencing fewer breaches, and the attacks that do hit them aren’t as costly.


AWM organisations must embrace disruptive tech and how it can help them compete, grow and unlock new value. Indeed, most firms foresee a significant shift towards tech-enabled solutions, as they seek to engage a younger, more tech-savvy investor base and serve a burgeoning mass-affluent market. Investing in transformative tech isn’t just a strategy—it’s the key to future-proofing success.

PwC’s 2024 Global Asset and Wealth Management Survey is an international survey of global asset managers and institutional investors.

The survey aimed to assess the AWM industry’s current response to the emergence of disruptive technologies and their impacts on the industry. It also sought to evaluate the evolving expectations of institutional investors and asset managers as technology becomes increasingly integral to the AWM landscape.

The asset manager survey sample, which was largely cross-sectional in terms of role, firm size and tranche, comprised 264 respondents. The institutional investors survey sample consisted of 257 respondents. Respondents covered a broad spectrum of AuM size, with more than half managing assets of more than US$10 billion.

For our projections, we used econometric modelling to obtain our estimates. The relevant indicators (AuM, client assets and the like) were used as the target variable (generally based on data from 2003 to 2023), and various macroeconomic indicators from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were used as explanatory variables. Statistical software was used to test various models, and statistically significant models for each country or region were shortlisted. Additionally, we have included PwC experts’ points of view on key future trends within the different industries.

For questions about the research, contact Dariush Yazdani in PwC’s Global Asset and Wealth Management Market Research Centre.

For media inquiries, contact Dan Barabas.

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Albertha Charles
Albertha Charles

Asset and Wealth Management Leader, Financial Services Partner, PwC United Kingdom

Global Asset and Wealth Management Leader, Partner, PwC United Kingdom

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Thomas Steinbauer

Thomas Steinbauer

Partner, COO, PwC Austria

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