F2 Event Perspectives: BNY INsite, FactSet Focus, FIRMA, GAIM, TUG/GPUG

During the second quarter of 2026, F2 team members attended events across the wealth management and asset management industry. We always love the opportunity to see so many industry colleagues in person and hear about concerns, questions, and struggles. And while AI is an ever present topic everywhere we go, our team is having nuanced discussions with firms on how to harness the possibilities of the tool for practical, applicable outcomes. Here’s a quick look at our perspectives on the trends at five of the events we attended in recent months.

BNY INsite

In attendance: Scott Lamont, Tim Buhler

Implementing a new tool is only half of technological transformation. The second piece is change. The organizational change required to make the investment in technology worth it demands leaders establish and communicate clear objectives. People are uncomfortable with change, but you didn’t implement the tool to do things the same way and get the same result. AI is speeding up the pace of change and putting more pressure on firms to get this part of the equation right. It’s essential that they maintain their focus long past the go-live date of a conversion. The real work begins after the platform is in place. 

FactSet Focus

In attendance: Doug Fritz, Jeremy Welch, Clay Corcimiglia

It was great to get in front of clients and FactSet Performance Solution (FPS) users and share our FPS Playbook. We tend to see a lot of questions on how to better use this tool. To get the most out of this resource, firms have to focus on data readiness and project sequencing. With support, they can shorten the feedback loop and implement, test, fix, and iterate quickly. And of course, no presentation escaped an AI mention. Notably at this event, we observed FactSet’s AI evolution since their event in Miami earlier this year as going from “text” to “action”. They previously focused on portfolio commentary and text summarization, and have now unveiled “action” via an agent platform that uses FactSet’s broad data sets and event triggers to support more interactive, event-driven workflows.

Fiduciary and Investment Risk Management Association (FIRMA)Conference

In attendance: Margie Christensen, Tim Buhler

FIRMA focuses on a variety of risk management topics. Sessions often emphasize the importance of documenting processes and procedures in the name of risk mitigation and control design. We found that attendees consistently related their struggle to produce well‑written processes and procedures that clearly demonstrate risk being mitigated and can stand up to an audit and support line of business staff for training. The need for procedure governance came up often. For example, system implementations, mergers and acquisitions or simply issue remediation. Any of these scenarios cause a need to rewrite some or all procedures so they align to the change while continuing to support risk mitigation efforts. A robust procedure governance program can position firms to manage change with more agility. Outsourcing this work can help firms achieve scalability for the processes they need to execute while documenting those processes and management of governance routines.

GAIM

In attendance: Lena Friedman

Two themes dominated GAIM conversations: potential uses of AI in alternatives and unraveling the complexities of private credit in operations across practices. Our view on private credit operational complexities is that firms must “look before you leap”. Managers often chase assets, gains, or the latest strategy and lose sight of the operational infrastructure required to support those strategies. We often help clients recognize pitfalls, identify risk areas, and address them pragmatically before they become issues.

TUG/GPUG User Conference

In attendance: Scott Lamont, Tim Buhler

FIS broke news announcing a formal partnership with InvestCloud. Generally, we’re seeing vendors increasingly fill product gaps through partnerships or acquisitions rather than pure build. For example, SEI with Docupace and Orion with Beyond Commissions joining the list. FIS also previewed a forthcoming partnership with an AI firm. That firm turned out to be Anthropic. Again, we’ve noted that most vendors are diving into AI-provider partnerships. It's important for firms to examine those relationships closely.

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