INSIGHTS
TradeTech 2025: When AI is the talk of the town, communications is good buy-side strategy
Equities have been on a wild ride, US Treasuries are no longer a safe haven – and no one can agree on what comes next.
Perfect conditions for TradeTech 2025!
It’s taken just weeks for Donald Trump’s second presidency, with its scattershot policies and threatening trade wars, to upend the global world order.
Obviously, it’s not clear how this chaos will affect markets long term.
However, as we gear up for the Paris event, the big question looms:
How do you make informed investment decisions when equity volume turns on a dime, and Trump’s tariffs have wiped trillions off the stock market?
Spotlight on artificial intelligence
These headlines will sharpen the buy side’s discussions around perennial concerns like managing risk and finding alpha in volatile conditions.
A glance at this year’s TradeTech agenda shows that the news cycle looms — and that the buy side is as interested as ever in using artificial intelligence (AI) to bolster its resilience.
Since the rise of AI over the last decade, buy-side firms have sought to automate workflows, supercharge forecasting, and synthesise intelligence.
The most futuristic uses have been the preserve of sophisticated quant firms and academic researchers, while many vendors leveraged the hype by slapping the “AI” label on offerings that were still human-powered or just simple chatbots.
This year’s TradeTech, however, should showcase that the tech is established and constantly improving, and the buy side is now really drilling down into what AI means in practice – the nuances of the tech on offer, their actual application and the value they provide.
This year’s discussions seem to centre around generative AI, and no wonder – these models can now create text that reads like it was written by humans, with the most high-profile of these apps, such ChatGPT and Claude, responding to human prompts in increasingly sophisticated ways.
For the buy side, the promise of generative AI lies in synthesising vast amounts of data from all kinds of sources, structured and unstructured, into insights that humans can read.
For firms exploring any tech, the communications strategy must be as thoughtful as the technology strategy.
From NLP to ‘battle-testing’ strategy
Way before ChatGPT, firms already used techniques like natural language processing (NLP) to parse earnings calls, track sentiment in the news, and extract information from regulatory filings.
But with generative AI, they’re starting to experiment beyond traditional use cases.
Generative AI does what it says on the tin – it generates content, whether text, images, or even code. For the buy side, the promise of generative AI lies in synthesising vast amounts of data from all kinds of sources, structured and unstructured, into insights that humans can read.
A lot of this is still in the experimental phase, but firms hope it could take the manual work out of producing, say, fund commentary, client reports, research, or to bolster sentiment analysis.
Big Tech cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google, and IBM all offer foundational generative AI models on which users can build their own tools.
Generative AI could even create synthetic datasets against which firms could battle-test their strategies and risk management scenarios, or accelerate model development.
Talking to allocators and regulators
Behind the excitement lurk the familiar and mundane challenges any firm faces when adopting evolving tech:
– Finding the right tools
– Finding the right talent
– Finding the right data from outside sources and siloed repositories across the firm.
There are worries about data privacy and security, since models will need to be trained on what is often sensitive and competitive data.
These are technical and operational questions, but they also make it clear how pivoting to AI comes with a communications challenge too.
For firms exploring any tech, the communications strategy must be as thoughtful as the technology strategy.
Asset allocators will want to know that investment firms aren’t just talking about using AI. They will want to know precisely what tools they’re using, how they’re using them, and that they’re not leaning too heavily on them.
Firms will want to assure regulators and clients alike that they’re wary of “black box” tools or overhyped solutions.
They will want to communicate that their generative AI models – notoriously prone to hallucination (i.e. making stuff up) – aren’t confidently spitting out false information.
They will want to communicate that their models are validated, have human oversight, and aren’t leaking sensitive data.
A PR strategy for AI is not always about earning positive headlines. It should be about articulating innovation in a language that speaks to investors, regulators, and peers.
Want to discuss this at TradeTech 2025?
GT has long committed to WBR events, including TradeTech, and would love to discuss this and other pressing issues facing buy-side capital markets firms.
Get in touch to arrange a coffee meeting, or head to the GT Press Office at the event to meet with Joanna, Jeff, Indre or Eléonore.
Get in touch today
