What Is Driving Fund Technology Evolution in 2026? Cloud, AI and Open Data in Asset Servicing
By Emmanuel Maire, CTO, Multifonds
Multifonds’ 2026 technology roadmap focuses on three priorities for fund administrators and transfer agents: a modern cloud foundation, AI-powered operations, and a unified user experience with open, flexible reporting.
Fund technology is evolving in response to a clear operating challenge: firms need to support more complex products, meet tighter deadlines and strengthen resilience without adding operational friction. In 2026, Multifonds is advancing its technology roadmap around three pillars — cloud, embedded AI, and open access to data and reporting — to modernise core fund administration and transfer agency operations while maintaining control.
Drawing on the roadmap outlined by Emmanuel Maire, CTO at Multifonds, this article explains what is driving technology change in asset servicing and how these priorities can translate into practical improvements in performance, exception management and operational transparency.
Key takeaways
- Cloud infrastructure can provide elastic processing capacity during peak NAV periods while strengthening resilience and reducing reliance on manual contingencies.
- AI is most useful when embedded directly into operational workflows, where it can help teams investigate and resolve exceptions faster while preserving governance and auditability.
- A unified user experience and open, secure access to data can reduce integration friction and make reporting and operational information easier to reuse across the organisation.
- The goal of technology modernisation is not to add more tools, but to improve speed, scalability, transparency and control within a cohesive operating model.
What are the five forces reshaping fund administration and transfer agency technology?
Five structural forces are accelerating technology change across asset servicing: product complexity, economic pressure, compressed processing timelines, resilience requirements, and rising expectations for AI and open connectivity.
- Private assets and hybrid vehicles are rewriting the data problem — more bespoke terms, valuations and events mean more data dependencies across the lifecycle and investor servicing chain.
- Economics are accelerating automation — fee pressure and scale requirements are pushing firms towards standardisation, straight-through processing (STP), and “operate-by-exception” models, where routine processing is automated and teams focus on breaks that require investigation or judgement [1].
- Cut-off times are compressing across the value chain — faster settlement cycles and intraday oversight expectations leave less room for manual breaks and late reconciliations. In Europe, the industry is progressing towards T+1 settlement, with an indicative target of October 2027 [2], reinforcing the need for higher STP and tighter operational discipline.
- Resilience and cyber scrutiny are becoming structural requirements — regimes such as the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) [3], alongside broader supervisory focus, are raising expectations for observability, control frameworks and third-party governance.
- AI and MCP server delivery are resetting expectations — firms increasingly want governed AI embedded in workflows, alongside self-service access to data and reporting through application programming interfaces (APIs) that connect with their existing toolsets [4].
The common thread is clear: the industry is moving towards operating models that are faster, more transparent and control-led, while remaining cost-efficient at scale. Multifonds’ technology evolution is designed around that shift.
How is Multifonds’ 2026 technology roadmap responding?
The roadmap is centred on three practical outcomes: scaling confidently on a modern cloud foundation, embedding intelligence into day-to-day operations, and increasing transparency through a unified user experience with open, reusable reporting and data.
As asset servicing faces tighter cut-offs, rising product complexity and increasing regulatory scrutiny, technology has moved from the background to the heart of operational performance. The challenge is to modernise without introducing new risk or disrupting critical processes.
How can cloud infrastructure improve fund administration performance?
Cloud infrastructure can improve fund operations by scaling processing capacity when demand peaks, while providing a more resilient foundation for time-critical activities such as NAV calculation and valuation processing.
One global fund administrator, managing high-volume valuation cycles across multiple asset classes, recently faced growing strain around peak NAV periods. Infrastructure that performed adequately during normal operations struggled under compressed deadlines and rising transaction volumes, putting operational teams under pressure and increasing reliance on manual contingencies.
By transitioning to Multifonds’ modern cloud foundation, the client gained access to a platform designed to flex dynamically with demand. Capacity now expands automatically during peak processing windows and settles back when volumes normalise, without manual intervention or hardware constraints. Resilience is built in through distributed deployment, helping ensure continuous availability even when individual components are under stress.
The result is improved performance and predictability during peak cycles, so operations teams can focus on oversight rather than manual contingencies.
Security controls are built into the design to align with rising cyber and regulatory expectations, while cloud-based infrastructure can also support clients’ sustainability and ESG objectives.
How can AI improve exception management in fund operations?
AI can add practical value in exception-heavy workflows by surfacing relevant context, helping users investigate breaks faster, and supporting more consistent resolution without removing human oversight.
For many asset servicers, the real operational bottleneck sits in exception handling. As products diversify and data dependencies increase, teams spend more time investigating breaks, gathering context and coordinating responses, often under intense time pressure.
Another Multifonds client, operating across multiple jurisdictions, sought to reduce manual effort in this area without compromising auditability or control. Rather than adding yet another tool, they adopted embedded intelligence directly within their operational workflows.
Today, AI-assisted capabilities surface relevant context when exceptions arise and guide users towards faster, more consistent resolution. Routine tasks are streamlined so teams can focus their expertise where it adds the most value, while maintaining governance and auditability.
The impact has been measurable in day-to-day operations: faster turnaround times, reduced variability in handling, and a more resilient operating model that scales as volumes grow.
Why do open data and a unified user experience matter in asset servicing?
A unified user experience can simplify day-to-day operations, while open and secure data access allows firms to reuse reporting and operational information across analytics, oversight and regulatory workflows without relying on bespoke point-to-point connections.
Operational efficiency is shaped not only by processing power, but also by how easily users can interact with systems and how flexibly data can be reused across the organisation.
Clients adopting Multifonds’ modern user experience have highlighted that a unified interface simplifies daily work: teams require less training, configuration changes can be delivered faster, and new capabilities reach production without lengthy development cycles.
Open, secure access to reporting and operational data helps firms integrate Multifonds into their broader analytics and reporting ecosystems. Instead of bespoke extracts or point-to-point integrations, clients can consume datasets through standard interfaces in the tools they already use — for oversight, client reporting and regulatory transparency.
What should fund administrators prioritise when modernising core technology?
Fund technology modernisation should improve scale, speed, transparency and control together. Cloud, AI and open data create the most value when they are integrated into the operating model rather than added as isolated tools or disconnected layers.
- Scale where demand is variable: infrastructure should absorb peak processing volumes without requiring manual capacity management.
- Embed intelligence where work slows down: AI should support high-friction workflows such as exception investigation while maintaining auditability and governance.
- Make data reusable: reporting and operational information should be available through secure, standard interfaces so it can support oversight, analytics and client needs across the organisation.
Across these examples, the common theme is purposeful innovation: cloud scale where it matters, intelligence where exceptions slow teams down, and open data access to improve transparency and reuse.
As cut-off times tighten further and expectations around resilience continue to rise, manual workarounds become unsustainable. Multifonds’ 2026 roadmap responds by combining cloud scale, embedded intelligence and open data access into a cohesive platform — one designed to help organisations move faster while strengthening control.
For clients, the value is a more adaptable operating model: fewer technology constraints, more consistent operational outcomes, and a foundation designed for the next phase of asset servicing.
Sources
[1] BCG — Global Asset Management Report 2025:
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2025/reinventing-growth-amid-market-volatility
BCG — PDF:
https://web-assets.bcg.com/cc/0a/25876ea740168e908a8652e147d7/2025-gam-report-april-2025.pdf
[2] ESMA — Shortening the settlement cycle to T+1 in the EU:
https://www.esma.europa.eu/esmas-activities/markets-and-infrastructure/shortening-settlement-cycle-t1-eu
[3] EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 (DORA):
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/SR/ALL/?uri=celex:32022R2554
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/LSU/?uri=oj:JOL_2022_333_R_0001
[4] Deloitte — 2025 investment management outlook:
https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-services/financial-services-industry-outlooks/investment-management-industry-outlook-2025.html
Connect with the author
Last updated in Aug 2026.