Buy side AI adoption hindered by broker research licensing restrictions

This press release was originally published by Substantive Research

• Latest Substantive Research and Aiera survey finds that 77% of buy side firms currently have organisation-wide deployments of generative AI platforms in place (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT)
• 77% said that broker research was the most valuable input to receive as machine-readable feeds directly into their internal AI systems, followed by Earnings Transcripts (57%) and Market Data (42%).
• Broker/Data Licensing Restrictions are the biggest barrier preventing adoption of direct research/data feeds (69%), followed by Compliance and Entitlements (54%)

London, 16 July 2026: Substantive Research, the research and market data discovery and pricing analytics provider, has partnered with Aiera, a consortium-backed content delivery and access platform, to better understand how the buy side is building an effective and sustainable AI infrastructure to remain competitive. Jointly, they surveyed 35 of the largest global asset managers and here are the key findings:

• 77% of buy side firms currently have organisation-wide deployments of generative AI platforms in place (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT etc.)
• Broker/Data Licensing Restrictions are the biggest barrier preventing adoption of direct research/data feeds (69%), followed by Compliance and Entitlements (54%)
• 37% said that approving, adopting and onboarding these models takes 4-6 months, for 20% it took over 6 months, and for 17% it only took 1-3 months
• Just over a quarter are evaluating or have implemented vertically integrated AI platforms that specialise in finance/investment research
• 44% view specialised platforms as potentially strategic long-term partners, with the same number evaluating but undecided
• 77% said that broker research was the most valuable input to receive as machine-readable feeds directly into their internal AI systems, followed by Earnings Transcripts (57%) and Market Data (42%)
  

Background

Asset managers consume and pay for a large variety of insights from brokers, independent research providers, expert networks, alternative data vendors and proprietary internal sources, creating complex research ecosystems that have been incredibly difficult to manage and optimise.

However, recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have created opportunities for asset managers to ingest, surface and summarise diverse content sources at scale. As a result, the buy side is actively evaluating how AI can improve research discovery, accelerate insight generation and enhance analyst productivity in a way that suits their own needs and preferences.

Adoption is taking different forms, and firms differ enormously in how far they've progressed, how ambitious they are and how long implementation takes from compliance and onboarding perspectives. They are also weighing the benefits of enterprise-wide consistency and scale from the West Coast AI model solutions against the advantages of investment-research focused AI platforms with domain expertise and industry-specific functionality.

Mike Carrodus, CEO of Substantive Research, said: "Buy side firms are firmly focused on keeping up with competitors when it comes to AI-driven transformation. But their LLMs are only going to be as powerful as the resources they can draw upon, and this survey shows that broker research licensing is a key component for that success. The commercial model is still being negotiated and decided, and that needs to resolve quickly from the perspective of portfolio managers needing to reap the scaling rewards from AI."

Gavin Skinner, COO of Aiera, said: "Buy-side firms overwhelmingly want broker research inside their AI workflows, but today's licensing, entitlement, and compliance frameworks weren't designed for machine-readable, AI-driven environments. Modernizing how premium content is governed and delivered is essential to unlocking AI's full potential while protecting the intellectual property, transparency, and commercial value that underpin the research ecosystem."

Mike Carrodus, CEO of Substantive Research, added: "What this survey confirms is that in an AI-driven investment world, the sell side retains its core role in enabling the buy side to scale. While research remains a relationship business with direct analyst access even more crucial now than ever before, written research still needs to be a key resource on portfolio managers' desktops."

Media Contact

Andrew Dunn - Streets Consulting
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About Substantive Research
Substantive Research provides independent comparison and discovery on investment research, ESG and market data pricing and products, to financial institutions that represent a combined AUM of more than $20 trillion and total assets of over $25 trillion.

Via the Substantive Research platform, investment research consumers can compare their provider pricing, budget allocations and benchmark consumption habits versus their peers, to optimise their overall research spend.

In response to demand from its customer base, Substantive Research subsequently created the industry's first "apples-to-apples" Market Data Spend Analytics Service, which allows both buy side and sell side firms to truly understand and compare their market data payments and budgeting against peers and the wider market. This has become an important tool for clients against a backdrop of ongoing pricing opacity in the industry and rising market data costs.
For more information please visit our website or on LinkedIn.

About Aiera
Aiera is a consortium-backed, AI-enabled content delivery and access platform serving content providers, content consumers, and the broader content delivery ecosystem. Aiera supports the development of industry-wide solutions where buy-side and sell-side interests are aligned.