Northern Trust expands Microsoft AI partnership

Northern Trust has launched an AI-powered onboarding agent developed with Microsoft.

It comes as asset managers face mounting challenges consolidating investment data from multiple sources.

Pete Cherecwich, chief operating officer at Northern Trust, said the technology will help clients get up and running more quickly while reducing the burden of onboarding. “The client onboarding agent is an example of an approach that combines Northern Trust’s asset servicing expertise with Microsoft’s AI capabilities to help get clients up and running more quickly during onboarding,” he said.

The new tool has been deployed within Northern Trust Asset Servicing’s Front Office Solutions platform and is designed to automate a key part of institutional client onboarding. Developed jointly with Microsoft Frontier Company engineers, the agent converts clients’ historical transaction data into Northern Trust’s standardised reporting format.

According to the company, the technology has reduced data preparation times by 83%, cutting the process from around two-and-a-half weeks to three days. Northern Trust said the system achieved a 96.5% first-pass quality score during testing while maintaining human oversight throughout the workflow.

The platform is used by institutional investors including pension schemes, foundations, endowments and family offices. Onboarding these clients can be particularly complex because firms often need to consolidate years of investment and transaction data from multiple providers, especially for alternative assets.

Northern Trust said analysts remain responsible for reviewing outputs, resolving exceptions and validating data before clients go live. The solution is built on Microsoft Azure and integrates with Microsoft 365 tools including Excel and SharePoint.

Bill Borden, corporate vice president, worldwide financial services at Microsoft, said the project demonstrated how AI could improve service delivery in highly regulated industries without compromising governance or trust. He added that the collaboration offered a model for institutions seeking to modernise complex operational workflows.

The announcement reflects wider AI adoption across financial services, where firms are increasingly deploying generative AI tools to automate labour-intensive processes while improving efficiency and client service. Northern Trust, which oversees $19tn in assets under custody or administration and $2tn in assets under management, said the initiative forms part of its broader strategy to use AI as an enhancement to, rather than a replacement for, human expertise.