AI accelerating transparency in private markets – how Citco Document Intelligence can help with drudgery of document management

17 July 2024 - Fund managers are seeking a better understanding of their private investments by accessing comparable structured data – and new solutions can help them get started.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the private markets landscape across asset classes including real estate, private equity, and private credit, by enhancing transparency and efficiency. Fund managers are able to turn more and more to generative AI to analyze and synthesize vast amounts of data, providing insights that can lead to more informed decision-making for the funds they manage, and help enhance investment strategies. Additionally, AI can also provide benefits when it comes to operational challenges, accelerating much awaited transparency on asset classes which have traditionally been opaque.

Asset servicers like the Citco group of companies (Citco) are here to help. Citco recently launched the first ‘AI Plus Human’ platform offering fund managers and allocators a fully-managed document management service, leveraging Generative AI to create a practical solution.

Known as Citco Document Intelligence™ (CDI), the platform combines AI and fund reporting experts to assist fund managers, fund types and asset owners, and will be of particular interest to fund of funds managers.

The Citco Document Intelligence (CDI) product supports clients by:

1. Managing the drudgery of document management: An allocator is inundated by documents of various types across the Fund investment lifecycle. CDI automates document captures through RPAs and offers our clients easy access to a document library through our document management.
2. A stepping stone to comparable structured data: By automating data extraction and analysis, CDI reduces the time and expense associated with manual data collection, thus enhancing transparency and efficiency by getting Limited Partners (LPs) closer to a comparable structured data set across their manager line-up.
3. Faster access to information: Access to structured data enables straight through processing of data sets for valuations and transactions which can now be sent to downstream systems such as the Accounting system, Reporting system and Payment systems.

As these technologies continue to evolve, Citco expects they will play an increasingly vital role in the transformation of private markets towards greater openness and accountability.

While generative AI is still an emerging force within private markets, fund managers can start to get to grips with it now in order to accelerate transparency via the automation of manual processes, providing deeper insights, and enabling more direct access to information.