How Investors are Using AI in the Decision-Making Process
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping U.S. capital markets. Companies are embedding the technology deeper into their operations and business strategy, and consumers of corporate disclosures are increasingly using AI agents to analyze information, identify opportunities, and make investment decisions.
What was just a few years ago viewed as an emerging technology is now a core part of investment research, with a majority of investors incorporating AI into their workflows and expecting its role to expand in the years ahead.
The CAQ’s latest Institutional Investor Survey, conducted in partnership with KRC Research, explores how U.S. institutional investors are using AI today and where they see its greatest potential. The findings reveal investors embracing AI’s ability to improve efficiency, accelerate analysis, and uncover insights, while still emphasizing the value of human judgment to provide decision-useful information.
Read on for key insights from the survey and what they reveal about the evolving intersection of AI, investor expectations, and the role of public company auditors.
The findings reveal investors embracing AI’s ability to improve efficiency, accelerate analysis, and uncover insights.
AI Is Becoming the First “Set of Eyes” on Many Corporate Disclosures
Nearly seven in ten survey respondents (68%) report extensive or moderate use of AI in their investment research, and 83% expect that use to grow over the next two years. AI is widely known for being able to more efficiently distill large amounts of information and data sets, enabling investors to find the most relevant information they need at a faster pace.
Currently, investors are primarily using AI for qualitative research, including:
- Analyzing earnings calls;
- Summarizing the MD&A and risk analysis;
- Extracting financial and operational metrics; and
- Evaluating other qualitative disclosures.
While only 41% use AI regularly on the filings themselves, including 10-Ks and 10-Qs, this means that AI tools are increasingly serving as the first reviewer of corporate disclosures and will continue to do so as investors’ use of AI grows.
Market participants may need to consider whether today’s reporting framework is optimized for AI-enabled analysis. Investors have long relied on disclosures designed for human review, and those disclosures are increasingly being parsed and analyzed by machines. Clarity, consistency, and comparability may become even more important in today’s AI-driven environment.
Investors see efficiency as the greatest value of AI, which aligns with how audit partners are observing public companies use the technology. In the CAQ’s Spring 2026 Audit Partner Pulse Survey, 56% of respondents report companies utilizing AI for process automation. Investors also see value in AI’s ability to identify anomalies and non-obvious patterns that a human reviewer might miss.
As institutional investors rely on AI to help them make investment decisions more efficiently, the auditor’s role becomes increasingly important in enhancing confidence that company disclosures are reliable, consistent, and decision-useful – qualities that benefit investors and the AI tools they employ.
Investors see efficiency as the greatest value of AI, which aligns with how audit partners are observing public companies use the technology.
A Trust but Verify Approach
While investors see the benefits of using AI in their role, they also emphasize a need to review AI-generated outputs. Even as investors’ use of AI becomes more frequent, only 33% say they mostly or completely trust what their AI tools produce.
Their top concerns include hallucinations or incorrect outputs, data quality, and a lack of transparency into how conclusions are reached. All these issues can significantly impact the quality of information that supports capital allocation decisions, and in response, a majority of investors signal a “trust but verify” approach to AI-generated insights.
Investors’ approach reflects a foundational commitment of public company auditors: conclusions should be supported by objective evidence, not accepted at face value. Investors validating AI-generated insights before relying on them echoes how auditors evaluate information and independently assess whether it can be relied upon. As AI use grows as a research and decision-making tool, the auditor’s role as an independent source of assurance will support a new age of investing.
Their top concerns include hallucinations or incorrect outputs, data quality, and a lack of transparency into how conclusions are reached.
What This Means for Today’s Capital Markets
Institutional investors are increasingly embracing AI as a powerful research and analysis tool, but a significant minority, 40%, say the technology has limited or no role in decision-making today. The investing community is not a monolith, and this signals that many continue to rely on high-quality information, human expertise, and professional skepticism to turn insights into investment decisions.
In today’s rapidly evolving markets, investors expect information that can be efficiently analyzed, compared, and evaluated. As AI adoption grows, trust and technology need to advance together. Organizations that understand this requirement and provide reliable, decision-critical information will be best positioned to meet the needs of investors and the broader economy.
Read the full Institutional Investor Survey and follow the CAQ on LinkedIn for the latest insights on issues impacting our capital markets.