The world’s largest allocators are enthusiastically rethinking how to use artificial intelligence to manage money and hire talent.

New research from WTW’s Thinking Ahead Institute shows that many large pensions are still building their data, processes, and infrastructure needed to put their AI tools to work. Organizations are even rethinking how to hire talent, with at least one asset owner hiring employees with backgrounds in technology rather than finance — and training them on the fundamentals of investing. 

Jessica Gao, director at the institute, told Institutional Investor that many allocators now regard “this technology as not just a simple tool but almost a co-worker within the organization,” before adding: “How the team and leadership adjust to that, how that technology will be deployed, is very important.”

The world’s 300 largest pension funds grew their assets by 13.4 percent to a record $27.7 trillion in 2025 — the fastest annual growth since 2017. Growth among the largest funds was particularly strong, with the 20 largest funds representing $11.9 trillion increased their assets by 14.7 percent. 

“There’s a lot of pressure for assets owners in a more complicated environment,” Gao explained. “More demand on their governance structure, on how they operate as a structure, on how they design their investment strategies.” The institute is currently compiling the results of a peer study on asset owners using AI technology.

The world’s largest pension plans have a far better understanding of AI’s potential to improve investment decisions and make their organizations more effective now than they did a year and a half ago. However, Gao noted that their ambition still outpaces their readiness.

 

Hyperscalers and TPA Gaining Steam

The research also shows that the pursuit of growth beyond traditional M&A through strategic partnerships is giving rise to a new category of allocators commonly known as hyperscalers (i.e., organizations that use their scale to gain greater influence and deliver better outcomes).

Gao noted that the ongoing conversation about the total portfolio approach (TPA) has been gaining momentum since CalPERS announced it would adopt this holistic portfolio management style. (TPA is when asset owners look at the portfolio as a whole rather than through isolated buckets.)

“The pace of change is so fast, it’s not comparable to what allocators were facing 20 years ago,” she said, adding that governments are asking asset owners to do more as geopolitical and regional tensions increase, which is why there’s “more discussion towards adoption of TPA.”

 

Asset Growth (and Attrition) By Region

While losing a bit of market share, North America remains the largest region, accounting for 44.7 percent of the top 300 assets, while the Asia-Pacific region grew its share of assets among the top 300 to 26.6 percent year-over-year. Europe’s growth has been significantly bolstered by the Government Pension Fund of Norway, which crossed the $2 trillion milestone for the first time. It overtook the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan in 2024 as the world’s biggest pension fund and has strengthened that lead even further, being 12.7 percent bigger than its closest peer.

While they remain Europe's two largest pension markets, the U.K. and Netherlands were the only markets to record negative asset growth over the last five years in both local currency and U.S. dollar terms.