Advances in artificial intelligence have changed how quantitative research is done and which skills are most in demand for systematic investors. A broader platform that allows for more career advancement and provides bigger opportunities gives the manager an edge in an ultra-competitive recruiting environment.<\/p>\n
“How research is done has changed in profound ways,” said Korgaonkar, who was previously the head of AHL.<\/p>\n
“We want the best R&D platform we can possibly have.”<\/p>\n
AI’s quant impact<\/strong><\/p>\n The original large language models released by consumer-facing AI companies didn’t move the needle at large-scale quant firms that had been using machine-learning techniques for years. The advent of tools like Anthropic’s Claude code and its ilk did.<\/p>\n For one, it changed \u2014 “on the margins” \u2014 the type of talent able to work as a quant in a place like Man Group, said Daniel Taylor, the deputy CIO of Man Systematic and former head of Numeric, in an interview with Business Insider.<\/p>\n The firm has traditionally prioritized candidates with a math or coding background for these roles, Taylor said, calling that skill set a “necessity.” Now, humanities majors interested in markets can do these jobs thanks to AI.<\/p>\n Want more Business Insider in your news feed?<\/p>\n \n Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you\u2019re searching for what matters.\n <\/p>\n “The ability to think creatively will be a more relevant skill,” Taylor said.<\/p>\n Daniel Taylor is now the deputy head of Man Systematic.\u00a0<\/p>\n Man Group<\/p>\n It’s also freed researchers from doing time-intensive coding projects, allowing them to focus on different theses and correlations machines can’t think of, Korgaonkar said.<\/p>\n “The depth of research you can do now is just tremendous,” he said<\/p>\n “The quality of research and types of research projects are just way broader, way bigger.”<\/p>\n Where the firm believes the most benefits will come from the merger and AI’s improvements is the firm’s internal library, shared across quant teams, where researchers are expected to update as they’re exploring an idea, even if it ultimately is a dead end.<\/p>\n “All research done well is good research,” Korgaonkar said.<\/p>\n “The idea is to build on top of the collective knowledge.”<\/p>\n The talent question<\/strong><\/p>\n The manager’s quant leaders believe their offering to potential recruits is hard to beat from a curiosity perspective.<\/p>\n Numeric had traditionally taken a bottom-up approach to equities, while AHL had been more macro, with a top-down view of the world and a trend-following focus. The two units have separate code bases, executives said, and researchers didn’t often collaborate across the firm.<\/p>\n The combined platform \u2014 with a significant presence in two academic hubs, with Numeric in Boston and AHL in London \u2014 will hopefully entice people who want to follow a hunch wherever it may lead.<\/p>\n “The world is a big place, there are a lot of opportunities here, and the type of work they can do has broadened,” Taylor said about the average researcher, noting that people who were once under the Numeric banner have already started incorporating more macro signals into their work thanks to “across the pond collaboration.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n