How BlackRock thinks about AI in financial services
Key points
Our perspective on AI
We view AI as an asset manager, fiduciary, market participant and technology operator. We see it as a generational opportunity for investors and capital markets.
Balancing innovation and risk
AI regulation must support innovation and capital formation while preserving resilience, protecting investors, managing cross-border risks and maintaining human accountability.
Principles for responsible AI regulation
Strong governance, consumer protections and safety must underpin AI. Adaptable, technology-agnostic and principles-based regulation can support responsible adoption.
AI's questions
Our fiduciary lens informs how we assess AI’s impact on growth, capital allocation, jobs and geopolitics, while recognizing that broader choices remain for policymakers and communities.
Our vantage point
We consider AI from our vantage point as an asset manager, fiduciary, capital-markets participant and operator of financial technology and data platforms. We see AI as a defining force and a generational investment opportunity, while focusing our attention on the questions most directly connected to our role: investment opportunities and risks; how AI can advance our technology platform; its impact on capital allocation, market efficiency and resilience; and regulation in financial services. Broader societal choices around AI ultimately lie with policymakers and the communities they represent.
An approach to AI regulation: adaptable, technology-agnostic and principles-based
We believe AI regulation should be adaptable as technology evolves, should focus on activities and risks rather than the tools used to perform them, and should center on outcomes such as investor protection and market stability. Regulation should advance the underlying principles of establishing clear accountability, calibrating oversight to risk, building connectivity across regulatory regimes and maintaining human accountability.
Regulating AI in financial services and capital markets
Financial services already has mature regulatory and governance frameworks that address many of the risks that AI may raise, and many of these can provide a foundation for managing AI-related risks without creating an entirely parallel regulatory regime. But generative and agentic AI can introduce new vulnerabilities and increase the speed and scale of existing risks, potentially requiring firms and regulators to reassess and adapt existing frameworks while preserving sound controls, professional judgment and human accountability.
Questions that go beyond financial markets
We consider AI’s implications for infrastructure, jobs and geopolitics through our fiduciary and investor lens. The AI buildout represents a significant capital-formation opportunity with implications for infrastructure, energy, supply chains and labor. Its broad impact on jobs and productivity remains uncertain, and growing international competition is creating an increasingly fragmented global policy environment. We follow these developments for their implications for economic growth, capital allocation and long-term client outcomes, while recognizing that the broader policy and societal decisions are for policymakers and society at large.
Creating better outcomes for our clients
Our perspective on AI ultimately returns to our role as a fiduciary. We believe AI can improve information and risk management, strengthen resilience, broaden access to financial opportunity and support economic growth. But its adoption must be accompanied by appropriate and effective accountability, oversight and governance. For us, that means integrating AI in ways that remain centered on our fiduciary obligations and support better long-term outcomes for our clients.
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