The Data Behind the Edge: How Aksia Is Building AI on 20 Years of Private Markets Intelligence

Harry Seplowitz of Aksia explains how the $360B alternatives specialist has embedded AI across its investment process, from initial manager screening to LPA benchmarking, without losing sight of what makes its research truly differentiated. This conversation is a candid account of what AI adoption looks like inside a firm where proprietary data, and the experienced team who know how to act on it, is a real edge.

Aksia manages relationships with over 100 clients, monitors 14,000-plus distinct holdings, and reviews hundreds of investment opportunities annually. In this episode, Harry Seplowitz, Managing Director on the Pan-Alternatives team, walks through how Aksia has systematically embedded AI across investment screening, co-investment underwriting, cross-team knowledge sharing, middle office operations, and LPA review.

Harry describes how Aksia's proprietary database of 150,000+ private markets transactions spanning more than 20 years has become the fuel for AI-driven analysis. With that foundation in place, the firm can rapidly benchmark any new manager against its entire universe, identify headline risks in a manager's history before committing to full diligence, and surface the full breadth of cross-team intelligence.

But perhaps the most important takeaway is what Aksia is choosing not to do with AI. Harry makes a sharp distinction between using AI to generate longer diligence reports and using it to produce shorter, sharper, more data-driven ones. In his view, firms that let AI inflate their output are eroding, not enhancing, their value proposition.

What You'll Learn:

• How Aksia uses its 150,000+ deal database to benchmark any new manager or co-investment opportunity against 20 years of private markets data
• Why being able to say 'no' quickly, to managers, to co-investments, is just as strategically valuable as identifying the right opportunities
• How AI has dissolved the silos between Aksia's hedge fund, private equity, private credit, and real assets teams, creating a unified intelligence layer across asset classes
• Why Aksia is actively tracking diligence report length as a KPI and what it signals when reports get longer
• How Aksia structures AI governance: what's centralised (vendor selection, compliance, data privacy) and what's deliberately distributed (team champions, use case development)
• Why early-career employees have become the most valuable drivers of internal AI adoption, and what that means for hiring and career development
• The 'blank sheet of paper' trap: why starting with a specific recurring task beats starting with a grand AI strategy
• Where the edge in alternatives investing will come from next: differentiated data, combined with experienced human judgment

About Harry Seplowitz:

Harry Seplowitz is a Managing Director on the Pan-Alternatives team at Aksia, based in London. He focuses on implementing customised portfolio solutions for Aksia's European and Middle Eastern clients across private equity, private credit, real assets, and hedge funds. Aksia is a leading alternative investment specialist with over $360 billion in assets under supervision and serves as a partner to many of the world's largest and most sophisticated allocators.

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Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the speakers as of the recording date and may change over time.