Thomas Edison had George Westinghouse. Apollo had Sputnik. Today’s artificial intelligence race between the United States and China may be the latest example of rivalry acting as a catalyst for innovation.
For three decades, allocators have bought emerging markets on a narrative: faster growth, better demographics, and deeper integration into world trade. It was a convenient story, and it built a large asset class. However, treating EM as a monolith disguises the complexity inherent in investing in such a diverse universe and, in our view, limits your performance potential.
As access to powerful AI models becomes increasingly commoditized, the differentiator for asset managers is shifting from the model itself to the investment workflow built around it. Models can be licensed; workflows must be designed, refined and governed. This marks an important evolution in how artificial intelligence contributes to investment research and portfolio construction.