By Darren Lassiter, Senior Partner at Arthur
For years, many asset management brands have got away with positioning that never really had to work in the real world. The strategy sits in workshops, in messaging frameworks, in PowerPoint decks. But not in market.
AI search is about to change that.
AI doesn't do well with vague. It compresses, summarises, categorises. And in that environment, unclear positioning becomes a real problem. Buyers are already asking AI to compare managers, shortlist providers, summarise what firms stand for and match them to what they're looking for. If your positioning is fuzzy or sounds like everyone else's, AI will slot you into the generic pile. As one observer put it: you're no longer competing for ranks and clicks, you're competing to be quickly understood.
The content problem runs alongside this. Asset managers produce huge amounts of content, but most of it sounds the same. And AI can now generate generic market commentary for free, at scale. So the firms that come out ahead won't be the ones publishing more, they'll be the ones publishing content with a real point of view. A consistent way of seeing things that buyers start to associate with that firm. That's what AI can find and surface. Generic content gets lost in the noise. Content with a genuine perspective survives because there's something there to grab onto.
AI won't create differentiation for asset managers. It will just show up who already has it.
The good news is that most firms already have more to work with than they think. It's really about going deeper into what's already there, how the firm actually thinks, talks and shows up. Making the brand something people in the business genuinely use, not just something that lives in a brand guidelines document. That means the things that often get skipped, a real tone of voice, a sense of personality, practical guidance on what good actually looks like in a pitch, a piece of thought leadership, a client report. And sometimes it means sharpening the visual identity so it's distinctive enough to be recognised in the places where buyers are making up their minds.
It also means finding what makes the content machine different. What’s often missing is a clear perspective that runs through everything and content that connects to the commercial ambitions of the business.
These aren't separate problems. When the brand is clear, the content gets sharper. When the content is sharper, the firm is easier to find and understand. And when buyers can find and understand you easily, that's when brand starts delivering for the business.
The firms getting this right aren't the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ones who've decided their brand should actually mean something. The window is open. It's worth making a start.
The question isn’t whether AI will understand your brand. It’s whether it will understand anything unique about it. If you’d like to explore that challenge, please contact darrenlassiter@arthurlondon.com.
