Equity Partner at Pictet Group: AI Systems Are Gradually Approaching the Level of Human Investment Managers
On October 18-19, the Global Wealth Management Forum • 2025 Shanghai Suhewan Conference was held in Jing'an District, Shanghai. Olivier Ginguené, Equity Partner at Pictet Group and Chief Investment Officer for Multi-Asset and Quantitative Investments at Pictet Asset Management, discussed how artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the future of asset management.
In Ginguené's view, finance is a service-led activity that involves processing massive amounts of data and transforming it into easily understandable, language-based outcomes. Now, AI has reached a certain level of maturity, enabling service companies to leverage this technology to enhance productivity and narrow the gap with manufacturing companies.
Service companies can achieve greater productivity gains by adopting AI. Ginguené believes the essence of AI lies in boosting productivity. In economies with slow-growing working-age populations and high labor costs, such as Switzerland, the productivity-enhancing effects of AI are being fully realized. History offers many examples of aging countries achieving significant results by adopting new technologies, such as the United States in the 1970s, Japan in the 1980s, and more recently, China. AI is the next wave.
Ginguené emphasized that the most exciting and disruptive applications of AI are now emerging directly within investment management. Recent proprietary research and real-time portfolio management experiments indicate that AI systems are gradually approaching the skill level of human investment managers.
Looking ahead, Ginguené stated that there is a need to explore how AI technology can be applied to asset allocation, private assets, external fund selection, and money market funds. Many of these projects are on the verge of yielding results. The dominance of human judgment is being challenged; the question is not "if," but "when" AI will match or even surpass traditional human advantages.
