The compounding effect of AI valuations and capital expenditures topped the list of macro-market concerns for asset owners, cited by 73 percent. AI-driven market concentration risk followed at 65 percent, and overdependence on a handful of mega-cap technology providers was flagged by 63 percent. Together, those numbers describe a risk landscape that wealth managers counseling diversified portfolios will need to address directly with clients. Wealth advisors have been signaling a bigger role for private markets in 2026, a shift that both surveys suggest is now translating into firm allocation decisions.
Private markets: from ambition to conviction
The Dynamo Software data tells a story of meaningful acceleration. While limited partner interest in alternatives has remained consistently elevated – 55 percent planned to increase allocations in 2022, and 54 percent in 2025 – the nine-point jump to 63 percent in 2026 represents the sharpest single-year move the survey has recorded.
“The past few years have been characterized by rate uncertainty and repricing across asset classes, which understandably put LPs in a guarded posture,” said Hank Boughner, chief executive officer of Dynamo Software, headquartered in Boston. “What we’re seeing now is LPs much more confidently moving from caution to conviction, increasingly looking to alternatives not just for diversification, but as a bigger part of the return equation.”
Reliance on fund managers rebounded sharply in 2026, after two consecutive years of decline. Seventy-eight percent of limited partners said they intend to access alternatives through fund managers, while plans for co-investments climbed to a multi-year high, with 64 percent planning to pursue this more direct route alongside existing fund relationships.
Among the primary reasons asset owners cited for increasing private market exposure, Morningstar found diversification versus public markets leading at 56 percent, followed by higher expected returns at 42 percent, and access to specific themes – such as AI electrification and data transmission infrastructure – at 29 percent.