Firms in the asset management industry are turning increasingly to generative and agentic AI to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and uncover new sources of alpha (the measure of an investment strategy’s ability to outperform the market after accounting for risk). The trend is continuing with the latest partnership between Franklin Templeton and Wand AI, marking a shift toward more autonomous, data-driven investment processes.
Franklin Resources, operating as Franklin Templeton, has entered into a strategic partnership with enterprise AI platform, Wand AI, to begin the enterprise deployment of agentic AI in Franklin Templeton’s worldwide platform. Wand’s Autonomous Workforce and Agent Management technologies have enabled Franklin to implement agentic AI at scale, accelerating data-driven decision-making in its investment processes.
The collaboration has moved from initial small-scale pilot programmes to fully operational AI systems, strengthening the partnership between the two companies. The first implementations concentrated on high-value applications of AI in Franklin Templeton’s investment teams, but now both have plans to mass-deploy intelligent agents in various departments.
The company plans to extend the use of Wand AI’s intelligent agent in 2026, a move designed to drive digital transformation in the organisation and enhance investment research.
Franklin hopes to ensure AI systems are managed responsibly under strict oversight, compliance, and risk control, therefore maintaining trust and transparency. Vasundhara Chetluru, Head of AI Platform at Franklin Templeton, said, “With strong governance in place, we are demonstrating that AI can deliver secure, scalable, and measurable value.”
Rotem Alaluf, CEO of Wand AI, commented on the company’s AI vision, saying its mission is to “elevate AI from experimental technology to a fully integrated, adaptive workforce that drives enterprise-wide transformation and delivers significant business impact.”
Alaluf said AI agents can “seamlessly collaborate with human teams and operate at scale in complex, highly regulated environments to achieve transformative results,” but only when these are “properly governed, orchestrated, and deployed as a unified agentic workforce.”
AI takes centre stage in asset management
Other companies in the sector are also going all-in on AI. Goldman Sachs has implemented AI at scale, with CEO, David Solomon, pinpointing the technology as a key force in economic growth. He is on the record as saying the opportunity presented by AI is “enormous.”
According to the Goldman Sachs report, “AI: In a Bubble?”, the company estimates that generative AI could create US $20 trillion of economic value in the long term. The report suggests AI has the capacity to create up to a 15% uplift in US labour productivity, if adopted at scale.
In June 2025, Goldman Sachs (GS) expanded its use of AI by launching a generative-AI assistant inside the firm, joining an increasing list of big banks that were already using the technology for operations.
The GS AI assistant was designed to help with tasks including drafting initial content, completing data analysis, and summarising complex documents. This has improved productivity in teams, freeing thousands of employees to prioritise higher-value strategic work, the bank says.
Such moves signal a shift away from AI niche-use cases and pilot projects to border enterprise deployments in major institutions, aimed at enhancing productivity and operational support.
While David Solomon acknowledges that AI presents an “enormous” opportunity, he has emphasised that there will be “winners and losers.” Some capital investments will not yield return, according to Solomon, which is why he says clients must be diligent in their AI investments.
Solomon has also noted how technology has already transformed the composition of the GS workforce make-up over the last twenty-five years. Today, the bank employs 13,000 engineers, illustrating the change in job functions over time. Rather than roles disappearing with technological advancement, Solomon believes economies and workforces adapt to change. “At the end of the day, we have an incredibly flexible, nimble economy. We have a great ability to adapt and adjust,” he said.
“Yes, there will be job functions that shift and change, but I’m excited about it. If you take a three-to-five-year view, it’s giving us more capacity to invest in our business,” he said.
Goldman Sachs and Franklin Temleton are part of a wider trend of financial institutions accelerating AI adoption. Solomon said, “I can’t find a CEO that I’m talking to, in any industry, that is not focused on how they can re-imagine and automate processes in their business to create operating efficiency and productivity.”
(Image source: “Trading Floor at the New York Stock Exchange during the Zendesk IPO” by Scott Beale is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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