Innovation has the potential to transform the investment industry. Small startup firms are already developing proprietary technologies — such as machine vision, deep learning, and other innovations —– that could help large investors evaluate opportunities and risks with far greater accuracy and efficiency than was previously possible. Yet the world’s largest funds are closed off from these innovations.

Research we have collected in recent months shows that pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments expect imminent breakthrough innovations in investment technology. But almost none of these institutional-investment giants have any policies in place for monitoring or engaging with the startups who are creating next-generation investment technologies.

  Harvard Business Review