Beyond the Hype, from ‘Cool to Core’
Artificial intelligence is reshaping capital markets, but unevenly. Firms have pushed past proofs of concept into live deployments across the front, middle, and back office. But data silos, governance hurdles, and hallucination risks remain persistent obstacles. This TabbFORUM report explores how AI is moving from cool novelty to core infrastructure, what’s working in production today, and where the next wave of adoption will determine lasting competitive advantage.
A year ago, the first edition of this report highlighted a capital markets industry on the brink of transformation. Artificial intelligence had begun to move beyond proofs of concept, edging into production workflows across the front, middle, and back office. But adoption was uneven, and practical challenges. Data fragmentation and hallucinations remained serious roadblocks.
Today, that transformation is no longer theoretical. Firms across the ecosystem are piloting AI tools and scaling them. In 2025, the conversation has shifted from “if” to “how fast.” Buy-side leaders are embedding AI across investment workflows, broker-dealers are accelerating surveillance automation, and infrastructure providers are redesigning architectures to support agentic orchestration and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Even the regulatory landscape is evolving to meet these capabilities head-on.
While hype persists, practitioners are increasingly skeptical of general-purpose platforms. They want traceability, explainability, and ROI. And they are rapidly developing internal governance models to match. What emerges from this report is a market no longer wondering whether AI can work. It already does. The question now is: Who will get it right, at scale, and with lasting strategic advantage?
This report explores how advancements in AI is revolutionizing every aspect of capital markets, from trading strategies to compliance and portfolio management including:
- Buy-Side vs. Sell-Side Approaches to AI
- AI Use Cases by Office Function
- Human-in-the-Loop vs. Full Automation
- Data Architecture & Infrastructure
- AI Governance, Regulatory Trends & Risk
- Agentic AI and Autonomous Systems
- Market Impact and Alpha Opportunities