REPORT
Dimensions: North America Wealth Management IT Pressures & Priorities 2025
28th March 2025

Wealth management technology spending continues to accelerate in North America. Senior wealth management executives in the US and Canada report increasing technology budget growth in 2025. Tech spending allocated to "change the business" initiatives is rising sharply.

Celent has conducted its latest global survey of senior executives at wealth management firms: The Celent Dimensions Survey 2025 which highlights the business challenges and technology priorities within the industry. This North America cut of the research gathers insights and perspectives from 78 respondents in the US and Canada, offering a comprehensive overview of industry attitudes while also emphasizing the key technology priorities for the upcoming year. We also identify the products and processes expected to undergo the most significant technology investments this year and in the future.

Key findings include:

  • 77% of wealth management executives in North America say their firm is either live in production, piloting, or experimenting with generative AI.
  • 69% agree that enabling access to alternative and private market investments is a core priority in 2025.
  • 68% state that they will move more business-critical workloads to the public cloud in the next 18 months.
  • 59% say they will replace or undertake a major modernization of client acquisition (marketing, prospecting, sales) platforms and applications now or within the next two years.
  • 55% report that product/proposition innovation or enhancement is one of their top drivers of IT spending strategy.

Celent clients can download the full report below.

For over 20 years, Celent has helped senior executives make confident decisions around their technology strategies to execute at scale. As the financial services industry rapidly evolves, there is more complexity, with new regulations, startups, technologies, and applications to stay on top of and prioritize. Celent helps you connect this ever-changing puzzle. We offer objective advice and clarity, backed by a database of thousands of solutions and award-winning global best practice use cases. With real-life domain expertise, we also guide you through the maze of emerging tech in the pursuit of value. Our people, data, insights, and relationships form the foundation for you to use Celent to make confident technology decisions in financial services.
Author
Chris Bendtsen
Chris Bendtsen
Research & Advisory