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Morningstar Survey Shows Asset Owners Scrutinizing AI Risks While Increasing U.S. and Private-Market Exposure

September 17, 2026 at 05:21 EDT

Finance
Policy & Regulation

Global asset owners are treating AI as both a growth driver and a portfolio risk, with generative AI now ranked just behind inflation among their biggest global concerns. Morningstar's latest survey says AI-related environmental concerns more than doubled year over year, even as investors raised U.S. exposure and planned bigger private-market allocations.

Sep. 16, 2026 · Asset owners

AI risk moves into portfolios

Institutional investors are treating AI as both a growth engine and a material risk, with environmental concern rising alongside valuation, concentration and energy-cost worries.

AI environmental concern more than doubled

Share of asset owners identifying AI-related environmental concern.

Each segment represents one percentage point.

71%

rank generative AI as a material global issue

73%

cite AI valuations and capital expenditures

38%

use a bottom-up approach to AI adoption

>$20T

combined assets represented in the survey

What investors like

Internal workflow gains
Automated processing and research support
Infrastructure themes such as electrification and data transmission

What gives them pause

High valuations and capital spending
Market concentration around mega technology providers
Liquidity, transparency and data gaps in private markets

The portfolio response

Asset owners are not abandoning AI exposure. They are pairing cautious adoption with more scrutiny of energy demand, governance, public-market concentration and forward-looking data.

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