Innovation in Private Markets: Reflections from PEI Women in Private Markets 2025
After two days at the PEI Women in Private Markets Summit in London, one theme kept resurfacing in conversations both on stage and in the corridors: firms are ready for innovation — but adopting it sustainably requires more alignment, more clarity, and more space than many organizations currently have.
By Natalie Bond, InvestorFlow
This idea sits at the heart of our latest whitepaper, Closing the AI Innovation Gap And what struck me at the Summit is how consistently it was echoed across panels, roundtables, and informal discussions. Nobody questioned the value of AI or the need to modernize. Instead, leaders focused on what it really takes for new tools and new ways of working to take root.
Innovation Is About Conditions, Not Courage
One of the most encouraging observations from the Summit was that the appetite for innovation is strong. Firms are piloting AI, exploring tech partnerships, and rethinking internal processes. The challenge isn’t motivation — it’s bandwidth.
Innovation is accelerating, but organizations don’t always have the foundations or capacity to absorb it. Leaders described teams stretched by reporting cycles, market uncertainty, and multi-threaded operational demands. In this context, even the best technology can struggle to land if it introduces friction rather than reducing it.
Rather than framing this as hesitation, the conversations framed it as realism. Innovation isn’t something you bolt on. It has to fit into the rhythm of fundraising, dealmaking, portfolio management, and LP communication.
The Client Experience as a Compass
Whether discussions centered on ESG, wealth distribution, or portfolio construction, the question that repeatedly anchored the room was: How does this improve the experience for clients?
That framing aligns closely with the whitepaper’s emphasis on trust. Tools that obscure, confuse, or complicate won’t gain traction internally — or with LPs. The firms moving forward most effectively aren’t chasing novelty; they are designing innovation around transparency, responsiveness, and meaningful human connection (page 5) .
AI came up frequently as an example. Leaders discussed using it to draft clearer communications, surface insights earlier, or speed up response times — not to automate away relationships, but to enhance the quality and consistency of them.
Data: A Foundation, Not a Project
If there was one technical thread woven through the Summit, it was the importance of data readiness. Many firms are still navigating fragmented systems, inconsistent definitions, and duplicate records — realities that consume time and complicate decision-making.
Speakers reinforced a message we hear every day: AI is only as effective as the data you trust. Organizations that invested early in governance, lineage, and shared definitions are seeing smoother adoption and more stable outcomes. Not because they have more technology, but because their teams are aligned around the same information.
At its heart, data work is culture work — agreeing what matters, who owns it, and how it moves.
People Carry Innovation Across the Finish Line
A recurring insight from the Summit was that innovation succeeds when teams feel informed, supported, and able to experiment without fear of “getting it wrong.”. Leaders talked about the importance of psychological safety, continuous learning, and simple explanations that help people understand why workflows are changing.
Candid reflections from leaders who recognize the human tensions included:
“We’re experimenting… but nothing scales.”
“Change is happening faster than the organization can absorb.”
“Data exists, but we can’t use it.”
These aren’t signals of resistance. They’re signals of organizations operating at capacity — and of the need to introduce innovation in ways that reduce, not increase, cognitive load.
Where AI Is Quietly Creating Value
One of the more energizing threads across the event was the shift away from talking about AI in abstract terms. Instead of grand predictions, speakers shared pragmatic examples: summarizing diligence materials, drafting LP updates, identifying fundraising opportunities, improving portfolio monitoring.
AI becomes most powerful when it is embedded in workflows and amplifies human judgement, not when it arrives as a standalone tool or dashboard.
Firms reporting the smoothest adoption weren’t necessarily the most technologically advanced. They were the ones who understood where AI could remove friction, give back time, or make decisions slightly clearer. Incremental changes, applied consistently, were delivering meaningful results.
Looking Ahead: A More Thoughtful Innovation Cycle
The Summit closed on a message that resonated deeply with me: innovation in private markets is less about speed and more about maturity. The firms who will pull ahead in 2026 are the ones who build the strongest conditions for adoption.
The whitepaper’s final section captures this beautifully: transformation isn’t a technical exercise — it’s an exercise in judgement, discipline, responsibility, and stewardship. These qualities have always defined the best investment leaders, and they will increasingly define the best approaches to innovation.
A Closing Thought
Walking away from the Summit, I felt optimistic. The conversations were grounded, generous, and forward-looking. Firms aren’t chasing shiny objects. They’re asking smarter questions about alignment, experience, and impact. And that, more than any single technology trend, is what will define the next phase of transformation in private markets.