Shallow Work Is Eroding Alpha: Verity CEO on How Firms Reclaim Edge & Attention in a Volatile World

Too many investors lose time to shallow tasks: searching for a lost memo, extracting data from filings, or pulling the latest model numbers. In a world where volatility is constant and signals are buried in noise, that kind of busywork drains the one resource that matters most: attention. More and more, attention is a competitive advantage.

One of the biggest challenges facing investment teams today isn’t a lack of information, it’s information overload. We look at the problem through the lens of deep work, the Cal Newport idea of uninterrupted, high-value thinking. For investors, deep work means research, analysis, and judgment. Everything else (the rote, repetitive tasks above that crowd the day) is shallow work. And that’s a gap worth closing.

Here’s how it’s showing up across our platforms.

Scaling ‘Operational Alpha’ at Ninety One

Earlier this year, we visited Ninety One, a global asset manager with teams across regions and asset classes. They had recently gone live with VerityRMS, and it was great to meet the portfolio managers, analysts, and technologists driving their research process forward.

Their team had outgrown a legacy system and needed a research platform that matched their scale. More importantly, they needed one that reduced friction: too much time had been going to repetitive tasks like tracking down internal research or sharing updates across teams. They wanted to break down silos and foster information sharing across equity, credit, and multi-asset teams.

With VerityRMS, they now have a modern system for research insights and collaboration. The results: faster access to what matters, less time lost to what doesn’t, and more clarity across the investment team.

As Niall Hartnett, Head of 4Factor Equity Research at Ninety One, put it:

“With VerityRMS, we have a research management system that is fully integrated into our workflow and fulfills the function of both a center of truth for research insights, and a town hall for collaborating across the organization.”

[Read the full success story →]

Designing Data Advantages

On the VerityData side, our goal is simple:

• Structure the unstructured.
• Surface insights others miss.
• Give investment teams a head start.

Take our latest release: our Incentive Compensation Dataset.

We kept hearing the same thing from analysts and proxy teams: “We’re spending hours just cleaning up comp data.” The task was high-stakes, but the process was low-leverage — manually chasing filings, standardizing values, formatting tables.

Now, with this dataset, teams can go straight to analysis. See how executives are incentivized. Track plan changes over time. Compare comp structures across peers without poring over proxies.

[Read the announcement →]

Supporting Deep Work with AI

We’re also building AI features to take shallow work off analysts’ plates. Since the founding of VerityRMS, our customers have asked for new insights derived from their IP. AI is making that possible: surfacing insights, making connections, and identifying trends without prompting.

VerityRMS users can now summarize research notes, build reports, and access company-level overviews in seconds.

And we’re excited to share the newest addition: AI Chat.

You can now ask natural-language questions and get fast, cited answers drawn directly from your firm’s proprietary research.

Want to know what’s new? Or whether there are evolving (or missed) trends across your team in a given sector? Just ask. You’ll get a summarized view, full citations, and suggested follow-ups — all grounded in your intellectual capital.

This is what AI should do in an investment context: help you connect dots, elevate your ideas, and focus on judgment, not logistics.

Final Thought

In a world full of shallow work, deep work is your edge.

We’re committed to helping investment teams stay focused on what matters. Because that’s where insight lives, and where performance begins.

Thank you for your continued partnership,

Andrew Robson
CEO, Verity