On November 5th, 2025 Substantive Research hosted its annual Unbundling Unconvered conference, reuniting the European investment research industry at the Institute of Directors, London.
The debate and conversations around MiFID show no signs of slowing - and, remarkably, many of the same challenges that surfaced more than a decade ago still persist. Despite tighter oversight and growing operational complexity, the core issue remains simple: how to pay for research and related services effectively.
During our recent panel, we explored how technology, data, and AI could help reduce friction in the future - improving how client engagements are managed, orchestrated, and delivered, while adding more value to the human side of the equation.
Hear the latest insights from Douglas Christensen, Vice President of Capital Markets, on the current state of capital markets, the acceleration of AI adoption, and the potential for regulatory alignment in research funding and payments across Europe and North America.
The research market is shifting with AI, EU regulatory changes, and growing data demand. Which do you see as most significant long-term, and why?
All three forces are reshaping research, but AI will be the most transformative. Regulation may ease constraints and data will remain vital, but AI fundamentally redefines how research is created, personalized, and delivered. It shifts research from static reports to dynamic, on-demand intelligence and unlocks the full value of data through synthesis and prediction. Operationally, automation will cut costs and speed delivery, letting analysts focus on insight and client value.
Unlike regulation or data trends, AI’s impact is irreversible - it will permanently reshape expectations and determine the industry’s leaders.
In the last 12 months, what is the most potentially impactful technological advance for the research market, and how do you think it will transform behaviors or processes in practice?
The past year marked a turning point as AI moved from experimentation to integration. Enterprise-grade AI is now an infrastructure layer across the research value chain - powering data, creation, compliance, and client engagement. The real shift will be behavioral: analysts will work with AI to accelerate ideas, personalize insights, and embed research directly into client workflows.
The technology already exists; the challenge is adapting workflows, incentives, and compliance. Last year built the foundation - this year will reveal who simply adopts AI and who uses it to redefine the market.
How aligned do you think the buy side and sell side are when it comes to attributing value to research? How could it work better?
True alignment between the sell side and buy side remains rare. While many analysts understand buy-side needs and workflows, structural misalignment persists due to conflicting incentives and operating models. Large firms still prioritize volume, visibility, and internal metrics over client impact, while the buy side values depth, originality, and actionable, data-driven insight.
Fixing this requires redesigning research around relevance and measurable outcomes - prioritizing insight over output, linking work to investment results, and treating research as an ongoing partnership. Some analysts achieve this despite the system; the next step is building a model where alignment is intentional, not accidental.
How should research and data providers target growth given all the change the industry is experiencing?
Future growth won’t come from more content or data, it will come from becoming strategic intelligence partners who drive client decisions. Success means delivering integrated, workflow-embedded insights that combine data, context, and timing. Clients expect flexibility, modular offerings, and proof of impact. Providers who can show how research influences outcomes will command premium value; those who can’t will be commoditized.
The future belongs to firms that blend technology with trust - offering intelligence, access, and advisory services that improve client performance. Growth will be driven not by output, but by outcomes.
Which parts of your offering are evolving most quickly, and why are you focusing on them in particular?
The fastest-evolving part of our offering is how we embed research, data, and intelligence directly into client workflows - especially email, CRM, and mobile. Rather than asking clients to log into another platform, we meet them where they already work and deliver insight at the precise moment of decision.
We are also investing heavily in AI-driven personalization and analytics. Our goal is to reduce the friction of entering call reports and make research more tailored, interactive, and measurable. The firms that can prove relevance and demonstrate commercial impact - rather than simply produce volume - are the ones that will win in the next phase of this market.
Watch the full video of Doug’s conversation with Mike Carrodus for more real-world insights into the future of CRM, and the current state of Capital Markets.
