Six (Hard) Questions for 2026

This newsletter is part of The Assetizer, GenTwo's thought leadership platform.

Hello everyone, and welcome to season  two of The Assetizer.

After the year‑end break — spent travelling and putting the finishing touches on the new edition of our Assetization book (more on that here) — it’s good to be back in the saddle.  

The gist of the book is simple: the investment industry is in the midst of a revolution. Technology is radically reshaping how investment products are created, distributed, and managed — making previously inaccessible assets investable and transforming the infrastructure that underpins the entire industry. Many of the questions we’ll be exploring this year grow directly out of that theme.

With that in mind, here are six questions that I think will shape the conversation in 2026 — and that we’ll be diving into this season.

The Economics of Automation

I recently came across the term “do‑bot” — used to differentiate AI agents from chatbots. Chatbots tell you what to do; AI agents do it for you. Over the long term, radical automation of the investment industry seems inevitable, but we still need a critical eye. If AI agents become real and effective employees, what do human advisors do? Are agents truly trustworthy and secure, or could they lead us astray? And what about the economics — great AI comes with great costs in infrastructure and energy. How can we employ it most efficiently? If AI agents do the work, what becomes of expert judgment, empathy, and stewardship?

Infrastructure Winners and Losers

One of our main areas of focus at The Assetizer is infrastructure, and there’s no doubt that the investment industry’s plumbing is being rewritten right now. But who will benefit — and who will suffer? Many talk about the “valley of death” for firms stuck in the middle: too big to be specialized boutiques with an unassailable niche, too small to afford the tech that would truly transform their business. How will they compete — or survive?

Democratization: Pros and Cons

Democratization was one of last year’s big buzzwords, especially when it came to private markets. That trend will continue. We welcome the opening up of investment opportunities — that’s what our business is about — but it doesn’t mean we can’t ask hard questions. As we’ve recently seen with the pullback in private credit, alternative assets can be sweet but also sour. We’ll be watching closely not just the expanding investment universe, but the risks it may pose. After all, democratization without financial literacy risks replacing exclusion with confusion.

Beyond Alternatives

We all know that alternative assets have been on the rise for at least a decade. But what lies beyond that frontier? We’ve been talking about things like prediction markets, data markets, IP, and even human capital for years. The frontier of what counts as “investable” keeps moving — and now, some of those once‑theoretical asset classes may finally be coming in from the cold. Polymarket, a prediction market, moved billions during the election — but is that sustainable beyond election years, or was it just a moment? We’ll keep looking at how the investment universe might be expanding into some pretty out‑there places.

Tokenization at Scale

Last year was all about the mainstreaming of crypto as an asset class. This year may be about the mainstreaming of blockchain. Then again, every year since 2016 has supposedly been the “year of blockchain.” Distributed ledgers promise a robust, low‑cost shared infrastructure that can both cut costs and radically increase capabilities. Now, with tokenization gaining real traction, maybe we are finally at the inflection point — or maybe not. Where does this lead us? How quickly will the shift to new rails be made, and who stands to win and lose? Tokenization is testing whether distributed ledgers can finally do for investments what cloud computing did for software.

The Changing Investor

Our main focus is on technology and financial engineering, not consumer psychology — but investors drive the whole machine. One of the more interesting trends is the intergenerational wealth transfer and what it means for the industry. According to Cerulli, more than 70 percent of heirs change their wealth manager once their parents pass away. They’re often looking for a fresh approach: better tech, more choice, a different style. That’s a major realignment. We’ll be talking to investors and those who serve them about what’s changing, why, and how assetization might help keep those assets.

Across all six questions, the common thread is transformation — not in theory but in practice. How the answers unfold over the next twelve months will say a lot about the shape of the investment industry to come.

What do you think?

All the best,

Tom Lyons