Champion AI internally as well as publicly
MSCI has been using artificial intelligence for over a decade to enhance content and data collection processes and boost its clients’ ability to build better portfolios. It acts as an advocate for AI across the industry – but also internally.
The company strives to ensure each of its 5,800 employees[1] – from development and analytics to sales, marketing and legal functions – is aware of how AI tools can help them work more efficiently and focus on higher-value activities.
Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering Jigar Thakkar describes MSCI’s perpetual upskilling efforts. These include monthly hackathons and demos to show how AI has supported better, faster coding and project fulfilment. AI champions in each function lead discussions about best practice.
“It’s a very exciting time for our developers,” Thakkar says. “They’re able to get rid of a lot of their grunt work which is driving a lot of productivity improvements in engineering.”
Use scaling laws to ride the wave
These are the day-to-day efficiencies that can free up capital for investment in tech. But for Thakkar, who has been at MSCI since 2018 following a 19-year tenure at Microsoft,[2] the most revelatory uses of AI lie in its potential to reimagine the entire investment industry.
Thakkar cites MSCI examples such as a geospatial explorer that can map a company’s climate risks, or a chatbot to answer any questions relating to indexes or a client portfolio.
He urges firms to consider the ‘scaling laws’ for AI – the way an AI model improves performance as a function of increasing scale in model size, dataset size and compute power – and map them onto the trajectories of their own companies.
“The leading firms are going to look at how generative AI can power phenomenal new client experiences,” he says. “How can it drive improvements in our clients’ workflow and decision-making, in ways that deliver financial and growth results for the company?
“As you look at the wave of generative AI, are you going to ride that wave or are you going to be swept away by it?”
“The leading firms are going to look at how generative AI can power phenomenal new client experiences.”
Jigar Thakkar, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering, MSCI
Take time to perfect the product
Along the way, companies need to remain alert to regulation, compliance and legal restraints.: “There are a lot of implications of using a very highly sophisticated piece of technology like generative AI,” Thakkar notes.
Alongside these external factors, firms must focus on quality, performance and cost in developing generative AI tools, he adds.
“You want to make sure your cost is under control, that you’re doing this in a fiscally responsible manner, that the quality is high grade and that it’s repeatable,” he says.
“It can seem like it’s slowing you down, but in the end, if the client sees a great product, that is what we have to be shooting for. And for that to happen, you have to invest time and energy into things like quality and automation, compliance training and cost of AI.”
