By Lauren Bailey
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (BCI) is moving artificial intelligence from the backseat to a co-driver as it integrates these tools into the investment process.
Tony Payne, BCI’s chief technology officer, has been at the helm of the pension fund investor’s AI transformation for more than five years. In that time, the firm — which manages over C$295B in assets — has reimagined how AI is leveraged across every corner of its operations.
“This isn’t just an IT project,” said Payne. “AI has become a strategic imperative. . . . BCI’s chief executive officer, chief investment officer, and our entire executive leadership group are championing innovation and AI across the organization. Our global head of private equity, for example, has been an early adopter. His leadership means the rest of his investment team is really willing to participate. And I think that’s what allows us to build a true partnership with the different teams.”
A culture of creation
As an early embracer of generative AI tools, BCI has made these tools accessible to all of its global employees to encourage experimentation and innovation.
The pension fund investor has equipped its investment teams with enterprise-grade AI options and custom training to support due diligence and portfolio management. For example, they are building advanced forecasting models in record time and valuing the portfolio from the bottom up — tasks that previously felt insurmountable due to the sheer volume of information. Additionally, these tools are helping its teams draft deal alerts and investment memos, refining positioning and performing deeper analyses to yield high-quality decisions, said Payne.
BCI has also integrated AI agents into portfolio data software, using it to enhance workflow. For instance, Payne’s team has developed a natural language interface for one of its key infrastructure and renewable resources datasets, which allows analysts to explore the data in real time and refine their insights more effectively.
“We’ve taken AI out of the lab and put it in the hands of our investment professionals,” he said. “That’s when the magic happens — when investment professionals are working side by side with the technology team.”
Payne’s team has been rolling out gen-AI tools with each asset class through a partnership model, and its collaboration with BCI’s venture and growth team has led the charge.
Beyond internal adoption, the organization launched its venture and growth (V&G) strategy through a C$1B allocation from the private equity program, which currently oversees a roughly C$33B global portfolio. Within the strategy, the V&G team actively invests in and sources new opportunities to partner with companies that could benefit from AI implementation or are in AI-adjacent industries like quantum computing.
Payne’s team has also leveraged the V&G team’s networks and insights to develop pilots with early-stage AI vendors and test tools that could fuel growth opportunities within the V&G business. It helps that the V&G team’s thesis — investing in the future of enterprise — aligns with the technology team’s vision of accelerating innovation at BCI, he added.
What’s the ROI?
Advanced technologies like application programming interfaces and AI-driven analytics are a major tailwind for organizations, particularly investment organizations, said Payne.
Indeed, they drive tangible value by unlocking access to trillions of dollars of research and development, enabling faster, deeper, and more accurate decision-making, he said.
“It allows us to easily process structured and unstructured data once deemed too time and resource-intensive to justify the effort. The benefits are faster data-driven decisions, improved predictive analytics and it helps with risk assessments. It also allows operational efficiency in due diligence or forecasting — all of which enhances investors’ abilities to make better, sounder decisions.”
Accelerating into the future
Still, Payne acknowledged that AI adoption doesn’t come without risk. To strike a balance, BCI has implemented a set of six internal AI guardrails, informed by global best practices and the ongoing work of regulators in Canada, the U.S., and the E.U. In particular, BCI’s guardrails align with guidelines developed by Canada’s federal government, which aim to ensure safety; transparency; accountability; fairness in design, development, and use of AI systems; human oversight; and validity and robustness.
Payne likened BCI’s AI rollout to the safety mechanism of race car brakes. “That’s how we view our guardrails. They allow us to accelerate and reach top speeds because we have the confidence and control to maneuver on the track and come to a full stop safely.”
He stressed the importance of allowing people the freedom to move fast, experiment, and try opportunities — as long as they remain within the guardrails. “That’s what we’ve been doing at BCI, making sure guardrails are in place, communicating them effectively, and measuring how people stay within those constraints. Investment managers are in the business of risk. That’s how we generate returns. So, embrace risk, but do it through a calculated, controlled mechanism.”
Payne cautioned that organizations opting to sit on the sidelines during this AI transformation period will be left behind, pointing out that BCI is committed to harnessing AI to reshape the way it thinks, invests, and grows.
