I recently attended InvestOps Europe alongside our CEO, Andrew Welsh, and came away with a notebook full of ideas, questions and, perhaps most importantly, conversations that I think are worth continuing.

Events like InvestOps are always valuable as I have opportunity to catch up with clients, contacts and friends across the industry, and we had some excellent meetings over the course of the event. What I particularly enjoyed this year was the quality and breadth of the discussion taking place around the future of investment operations.

AI was inevitably a major part of those conversations, but this didn't feel like an event dominated simply by the latest technology. For me, the most powerful recurring question was: what should the investment operating model of the future actually look like?

Front-to-back is becoming a very different conversation

The Investment Operations industry has talked about front-to-back transformation for years. What feels different now is that the technology and capability increasingly exists to make much more fundamental changes possible. AI potentially removes many of the barriers that have historically separated processes, teams and systems, but that creates a fundamental question: just because we have the capacity to transform something, what should we actually build?

The most successful firms won't necessarily be those implementing the greatest amount of technology. They'll be the ones identifying where technology, data and automation can genuinely improve their business and, crucially, the experience of their clients and that brings in a broader cultural discussion.

As processes become increasingly connected and automated, accountability changes, the traditional boundaries between teams become less obvious and I genuinely believe people need to think differently about their roles and how they contribute to the wider organisation. One thing I found particularly interesting was the increasing strength of the Operations voice. Operations has a real opportunity to move further beyond execution and efficiency and play a much greater role in shaping how firms operate, compete and serve their clients and this brings exciting opportunities.

What does the COO of the future look like?

That naturally leads to another discussion that stayed with me: how should a COO actually be spending their time? It is a fairly well established role in terms of core activities, but how much should be devoted to running today's business and how much to changing tomorrow's? I'm genuinely unsure if these two things can be neatly separated anymore.

Transformation isn't something happening alongside "Business as usual". Technology, regulation, client expectations, data and changing operating models mean that the traditional COO role of running the business today increasingly involves changing the business at the same time. Different organisations will obviously be at very different stages of that journey, which makes governance and leadership particularly important and it also reinforced something quite simple. Despite all the discussion about AI and technology, this remains a people business.

The quality and diversity of the people around the table matters. Different generations and backgrounds will bring experiences and ways of thinking that are going to be incredibly important as firms navigate changes for which there isn't a current strategy available. As a recruitment professional, this interests me personally in terms of supporting my clients hiring needs over the next 5 years.

The client needs to remain at the centre

Another major theme was client-centricity because, as ever, client needs are rapidly changing. They expect both speed and greater transparency with increasingly personalised reporting and experiences. Distribution is becoming hugely diverse and firms are being challenged to provide greater levels of customisation.

There was an analogy at the event that I particularly enjoyed about the "last ten seconds" of buying a coffee.

You can have the best beans, equipment and processes in the world, but those final few seconds when the product reaches the customer still have an enormous influence on how they perceive the overall experience and there's a real parallel for investment managers because you can build incredibly sophisticated infrastructure behind the scenes, but ultimately the client only experiences the end product. How quickly can they get what they need, how transparent is the information and how relevant is the reporting? Like good coffee service, it is truly about how personalised the relationship feels.

That's where I think data becomes particularly interesting because the more meaningful data points firms can bring together, the greater the opportunity to create genuinely personalised client experiences. But none of that works without getting the fundamentals right. A reliable single source of truth remains critical.

AI: capability isn't the same as value

One of my biggest takeaways from the AI discussion was also one of the simplest. Just because we can do something doesn't necessarily mean we should.

There are fascinating possibilities for AI across investment operations and client servicing, including areas such as KYC, but a new implementation has to begin with the problem rather than the technology, because if the application of technology doesn't make something materially better then why are we even considering a change.

Ask yourself, are we actually solving the underlying problem like a bottleneck upstream, or does using technology simply to move that bottleneck further down the process rather than creating an end-to-end solution? That isn't transformation, but just kicking the ball into long grass.

The same commercial discipline applies when firms decide whether to build capabilities themselves or partner with organisations already investing heavily in the required technology and infrastructure.

Understanding where you genuinely have a right to win feels increasingly important. I feel strongly that businesses shouldn't try to own everything, but instead invest heavily in the capabilities where you can genuinely differentiate, and partner where somebody else can deliver better or more efficiently.

Customisation could be the next competitive edge

If I had to pull all of those conversations together into one overarching thought, it would probably be this:

Customisation is becoming an increasingly important competitive edge in investment management.

But I want to be clear that delivering it isn't simply about adding another piece of technology but requires outstanding data supported by joined-up operations, commercial discipline and aligned people who understand what clients are genuinely trying to achieve.

That, for me, was one of the most interesting aspects of InvestOps Europe. AI, front-to-back transformation, the evolving COO role, data and client centricity weren't really separate conversations but actually increasingly just different parts of the same conversation.

How do we build an investment operating model around the client rather than simply using new technology to make the existing model more efficient?

Andrew and I came away from InvestOps with plenty more thoughts and questions than we could sensibly cover in one article, so over the coming weeks, I'll explore some of these themes in more detail. I'm also planning another Meraki Talent senior Financial Services leaders' roundtable next month, where we'll bring together people from across the industry to continue the discussion because if InvestOps reinforced anything for me, it's that nobody has all the answers yet.

And that's exactly why these conversations are worth having.

If you would like to join our next C-suite roundtable please email me on nathan.macfie@merakitalent.com or meet me on LinkedIn.