The Book

Perspectives on Markets, Strategic Allocation and the Investment Industry’s Future

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This information is directed at Professional Clients only and is not intended for public use.

What Is The Book?

The Book is an annual collection of thought-provoking strategic research and thought leadership from AB’s Institutional Solutions team.

With a long history of taking on asset owners’ most pressing issues, the team zeroes in on themes and trends that will shape the macro, market and investment-industry landscape over the medium to long term. The team have been publishing strategic outlooks for over a decade.

The macro and market landscape is in a state of constant change, and investors must adapt to prevail. That calls for a comprehensive view of the forces shaping their world and the implications for portfolio construction.

The Book lays out what we see as the key issues asset owners face. The scope is broad—from macro forces to the outlook for capital markets and from strategic asset allocation to what’s on the horizon for our industry. Make no mistake: the decade ahead will likely look very different to investors than the past 40 years.

We assess the potential impact of changing demographics, deglobalization, the rise of artificial intelligence, growing government debt burdens and climate change. We don’t do this in isolation. We look at how their alchemy will redefine risks and opportunities—and we offer recommendations for investors to revamp portfolio design.

The Book attempts to guide investment thinking, assessing the challenges investors face and suggesting what investors can, and should, do in response. A deep assessment of the investment world we will live in—and a sharper view of the possible pathways to choose—lead to a call to shift portfolio allocation and design.

2026 Edition

US Exceptionalism, AI and Towards the Total Portfolio

Deglobalization and AI—alongside demographics, public debt and climate change—raise a key question: is the US still exceptional? We think yes for equities, but less so for the dollar. In the age of AI, the productivity debate is tied to demographics and the future of labor.

Our strategic response links these issues to portfolio construction, arguing for greater use of a total portfolio approach. For asset managers, the future will likely see wider AI adoption and evolving client demand for solutions.

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Introducing the Institutional Solutions Team

Research is a passion and way of life for our team. By applying our curiosity and expertise to tackle thorny investment topics, we aim to bring a different dimension of research to your decision making.

Inigo Fraser Jenkins

Chief Investment Strategist

Alla Harmsworth

Head of Strategic Asset Allocation

Robertas Stancikas, CFA

Investment Strategist—Institutional Solutions

Additional Contributors

Maureen Hughes

Research Associate, Institutional Solutions

Webcast Replay: Exploring The Book 2025 Edition

Recorded Tuesday 24 June 2025

Hear Inigo Fraser Jenkins and Alla Harmsworth as they discuss the five challenges identified in the latest edition of The Book, and the responses they are seeing for investors.

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2025: Instability: Debt, Inflation and AI’s Impact on Investing

This book outlines a strategic investment response to the abrupt shift in the geopolitical environment and change in the global economic paradigm that has accelerated a shift to a new investment regime. It includes the redesign of pension systems, the role of alpha and the position of tokens in portfolios.

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2023: A Painful Epiphany

This Book assesses the investment environment from the asset owner’s perspective. The pandemic marked a break in the investment regime, and the new investment reality demands a change in the approach to asset allocation and the outlook for capital markets—one that will bring about an evolution in the investment industry.

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2024: A Preliminary Language for a Post-Global World

This book sets out what we see as the key issues facing asset owners in the macro environment, and shares the outlook for capital markets, strategic allocation and the future of the investment industry. It will also explore how the next ten years are likely to be very different from the 1980–2020 period.

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The Book 2026 Edition

US Exceptionalism, AI and Towards the Total Portfolio

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