The Data-Driven Future of Manager Visibility
- Brent Watters
- Dec 14, 2025
- 4 min read
2026 trends fund and asset managers must know about discovery, data quality, and winning mandates
In 2026, consultant databases will be more valuable than ever — serving as central hubs for how investment consultants, allocators, and OCIOs discover, evaluate, and engage with managers. AI-driven analytics and rapid data dives have accelerated a transformation: what were once static directories are now mission-critical discovery engines, powering screening, benchmarking, mandate alignment, and compliance workflows.
The level of sophistication occurring enables searchers to use advanced engines that learn and mimic an analyst, with an ability to understand the market research intent and how to index and identify data that fits the objective,
Accurate, complete, and strategically maintained data is no longer optional — it’s a competitive differentiator and simply put: if you’re not visible and complete in the databases consultants rely on, you’re effectively significantly reducing visibility in the institutional market.
Let’s breakdown the major trends reshaping consultant database usage — and what they mean for fund and asset managers.
1. Consultants Are Relying on More Data Sources, Not Fewer
While industry consolidation has reduced the number of large consulting firms, their data consumption has expanded.
While the start of 2023 analysis showed top consultants using more than 30 industry databases plus maintaining their own proprietary files with thousands of strategies, that trend has only intensified.
Why?
The growth of private markets and alternatives introduced new specialized data providers.
Consultants must demonstrate deeper due diligence, documentation, and audit trails.
More data sources = better triangulation of risk, performance, liquidity, and operational strength.
What this means for managers: Coverage in one or two databases is no longer enough. If you’re missing from the list of big databases and niche datasets consultants use for alternatives, private credit, ESG, emerging managers, or volatility strategies, you risk falling out of the initial search.
2. Database Inputs Have Become the First Filter — Not Marketing Materials
Three years ago, firm decks, emails, and relationship-building were often the start of the conversation.
Today, consultants increasingly begin with data-first screening:
AUM thresholds
Performance dispersion
Style-fit or factor exposures
Liquidity and structure
Track record completeness
Fees
Vehicle availability
If your database profile has missing fields — even simple details like team changes, benchmarks, or vehicle structure — you may not clear the first automated filter.
This is why managers lose mandates without knowing it happened.
3. Data Quality is Now a Competitive Advantage
The rise of automation and AI inside consulting firms has elevated the importance of clean, machine-readable, complete data.
Consultants are:
Integrating databases directly into their internal CRMs
Using analytic scoring models to identify “best-fit” managers
Comparing peer groups algorithmically
Automating shortlist creation
Running factor or risk-based cluster analyses
If your strategy data is incomplete, outdated, inconsistently formatted, or not mapped correctly to peer groups, you will rank lower automatically — regardless of actual performance or team strength.
Good data = visibility. Incomplete data = invisibility.
4. Growth of Private Markets = More Databases, More Fragmentation
Private credit, private equity, real assets, venture, and hybrid structures have exploded. With them came:
More specialist database providers
More data fields required
More complexity in reporting
More consultant reliance on structured intake
For hedge funds, multi-strats, and non-traditional strategies, this means visibility must extend across multiple platforms — because consultants don’t rely on one source for alternatives. They triangulate.
5. Institutional Growth Has Shifted Toward Emerging & Boutique Managers — But Only If They’re Discoverable
A key trend across 2024–2025: Allocators are increasingly open to smaller and emerging managers, particularly in alternatives.
However, these same allocators almost universally start with:
Consultant screens
Database shortlists
Quantitative filters
Meaning: Emerging managers benefit most from strong database presence, but are harmed most by missing or incomplete data.
6. Forecast: Databases Will Become More Central, More Automated, and More Strategic
Looking ahead to 2025–2027:
A. More automation inside consultant research
Expect increasing use of:
AI-assisted screening
Automated peer-group benchmarking
Natural-language analysis of qualitative fields
Automated red-flag detection
These tools only work if your data is complete and structured.
B. Greater demand for transparency and standardized fields
Consultants continue to push for more granular, normalized inputs — putting pressure on managers to update more frequently and more accurately.
C. Rising importance of real-time or scheduled data feeds
Quarterly PDF uploads will meet the requirements of timely monthly data so your data isn’t outdated.
D. More demand for cross-database consistency
Inconsistencies across platforms undermine consultant trust immediately.
What Managers Should Do Now
1. Complete every field — not just performance.
AUM, team, philosophy, capacity, derivatives usage, holdings, policies & guidelines, risk tolerances, vehicle availability, fee schedules — consultants screen on all of it.
2. Update monthly/quarterly without fail.
Stale data causes ranking drops and shortlisting failures.
3. Think of databases as marketing infrastructure.
They are no longer passive repositories — they are part of your distribution engine.
4. Treat database reporting like compliance.
Accurate, consistent, documented, validated.
5. Consider automation + QA support
Platforms like Data-Centrix or Alt-Centrix streamline updates and ensure consistent reporting across multiple platforms — something consultants increasingly expect.
In an environment where consultants screen thousands of strategies across dozens of data sources, managers who prioritize accurate, complete, consistent, and timely database reporting dramatically increase their visibility — and their odds of being discovered, shortlisted, and funded.