What technology stack does Morgan Stanley run, and how is AI built on it?
Morgan Stanley runs a cloud-first, multicloud stack anchored on Microsoft: a June 2, 2021 strategic partnership moved workloads onto Azure under the firm's 'cloud-first and multi-cloud strategy', with Microsoft 365 for employees and GitHub for developers. Data runs on Snowflake, named the firm's 2025 strategic partner of the year after a seven-year partnership that has moved from warehousing to AI workloads, and wealth CIO Hina Shamsi said in October 2026 that the division is building 'that semantic layer that GenAI and agent workflows understand' on a relationship-centric data model it adopted about eight years ago. Models come mainly from OpenAI, the wealth unit's partner since March 2023, behind the AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant, Debrief and DevGen.AI; the CEO disclosed a beta of Anthropic's Mythos in April 2026, and BlackRock's Aladdin Wealth supplies portfolio-risk tools. The firm builds its own tooling on top: DevGen.AI had modernized about 16 million lines of legacy code by February 2026, Calm (architecture as code) underpins more than 1,400 internal deployments and was open-sourced through FINOS, and a technology sandbox lets teams test new models before production. Information processing and communications expense was $4,418 million in 2025, up from $3,775 million in 2023; global head of technology and operations Michael Pizzi oversees about 16,000 software developers.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Data as of Oct 31, 2026 · Morgan Stanley profile updated Oct 13, 2026 · 21 sources cited on this page · 141 banks profiled on this site · Markdown
Which clouds, data platforms, models and tools make up Morgan Stanley's stack?
What the firm or its partner has said about each layer. 'Since' is the first dated mention.
| Layer | What Morgan Stanley uses | Since | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud | Microsoft Azure under a strategic cloud partnership: transition of workloads to Azure, Microsoft 365, cloud-native services, co-design of Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services; described as part of a 'cloud-first and multi-cloud strategy' | June 2, 2021 | Microsoft; Rob Rooney, then head of technology[1] |
| Developer toolchain | GitHub as a cloud SaaS development environment and DevOps toolchain; Calm architecture-as-code behind more than 1,400 internal application deployments, open-sourced through FINOS | 2021; August 2025 | Microsoft; Banking Dive[1][8] |
| Data | Snowflake, a seven-year partnership moving from warehousing to AI workloads; in wealth, a relationship-centric data model and a semantic layer for generative AI and agents | Seven years by September 2025; October 2026 | Snowflake; Hina Shamsi[2][3] |
| Foundation models | OpenAI GPT-4 from March 2023 for the advisor Assistant and later Debrief and AskResearchGPT; design partner for ChatGPT for Financial Services (September 2026); a beta of Anthropic's Mythos (April 2026) | March 14, 2023 | Morgan Stanley; OpenAI; Ted Pick[4][10][6][11] |
| In-house AI tools | DevGen.AI, built on OpenAI's GPT models, maps legacy codebases and now automates parts of translation (about 16 million lines by February 2026); FIXR agents for P&L reconciliation | February 2026; June 2026 | American Banker; VentureBeat[5][12] |
| Wealth agents | Client assist agent (first client virtual assistant), service assist agent that can move money, open accounts and change beneficiaries, and an adviser assist agent | October 26, 2026 | Hina Shamsi[3] |
| Third-party platforms | BlackRock Aladdin Wealth in the Portfolio Risk Platform, first to implement its AI Auto Commentary tool | October 2, 2025 | BlackRock (Business Wire)[7] |
| Experimentation | A technology sandbox for testing new AI models and open-source tools before live use; a patent accelerator through which more than 550 technologists hold patents | June 1, 2026 | Michael Pizzi[5] |
How much does Morgan Stanley spend on technology, and who runs it?
Expense lines are from the 10-K income statement; the firm does not break out AI spending.
| Measure | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Information processing and communications expense | $4,418 million, from $4,088 million in 2024 and $3,775 million in 2023 | Full year 2025[9] |
| Where the money goes | CFO Sharon Yeshaya: higher technology-driven spend supports 'our infrastructure, AI-enabled efficiencies, and ongoing business growth'; in October 2026 she described a redistribution of dollars toward AI within the existing expense base | July 15, 2026; October 14, 2026[13][14] |
| Board review | The Operations and Technology Committee reviews the operations and technology budget and significant expenditures and investments | April 1, 2026[15] |
| Software developers | About 16,000, under Michael Pizzi, global head of technology and operations | June 1, 2026[5] |
Does Morgan Stanley build or buy its AI technology?
It buys the models and cloud and builds the tools. OpenAI supplies the models behind the advisor tools and DevGen.AI, Microsoft the primary cloud, Snowflake the data platform and BlackRock the Aladdin Wealth risk tools; the firm builds the applications, the evaluation framework and agents such as FIXR itself.[4][1][2][7][16][12][5]
Pizzi's argument for building is volume: 'We're going to enter a world where we fundamentally develop more software', with AI letting projects that 'just didn't quite clear the bar' go ahead. Not disclosed: the share of workloads in public cloud, other cloud providers by name, model sizes, or GPU capacity.[5][9]
What does the Morgan Stanley profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the Morgan Stanley AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 13, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 32 dated moves, 14 use cases and 37 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mythos beta | Testing Anthropic's vulnerability-finding model. | Pilot | [6] |
| DevGen.AI legacy-code modernisation | In-house platform on OpenAI's GPT models that maps old codebases for rebuilding and now automates parts of the translation. | In production | [5] |
| Aladdin Wealth Auto Commentary | BlackRock's generative-AI portfolio commentary inside the Portfolio Risk Platform, first implemented at Morgan Stanley. | In production | [7] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 3, 2026 | Opening stock-plan platforms to external AI agents | Clients' agents will pull data from ShareWorks and Equity Edge via MCP; 3,400 administration clients by 2027. | [17] |
| Apr 15, 2026 | Pick: AI is a 'productivity phenomenon'; Mythos in beta | On the Q1 call the CEO says the firm is using a beta of Anthropic's Mythos model. | [6] |
| Jan 11, 2026 | 2026 managing-director class names the AI leaders | Madhu Coimbatore (head of the firmwide AI platform) and Shailesh Gavankar (head of AI strategy and execution) among 184 new MDs. | [18] |
| Oct 2, 2025 | Pizzi: AI coding has a 'pretty profound impact' | The global head of technology and operations says AI has already changed how the firm's coders work. | [19] |
| Oct 2, 2025 | First to deploy Aladdin Wealth's generative-AI Auto Commentary | Built into Morgan Stanley's Portfolio Risk Platform for financial advisors from October. | [7] |
| Sep 18, 2025 | Snowflake named strategic partner of the year | A seven-year data partnership that has moved from warehousing to AI-driven workloads. | [2] |
| Aug 15, 2025 | Calm, the firm's architecture-as-code tool, open-sourced through FINOS | Already underpinning well over 2,000 application deployments across firms and more than 1,400 internally; Morgan Stanley, BMO, Citi and RBC joined a June 2025 FINOS effort on vendor-neutral AI adoption standards. | [8] |
| Jul 22, 2025 | Debrief goes mobile and firm-wide in wealth management | An internal memo from CIO Sal Cucchiara and head of platforms Chad Turner extends Debrief to the whole wealth field, previously advisors only, with tutorials and training. | [20] |
| Jul 15, 2025 | Patent granted on LLM conversion of legacy code | US 12,360,791, assigned to Morgan Stanley Services Group: converting a legacy program into a human-language description that can be validated and then rewritten; priority May 2024. | [21] |
Which cloud does Morgan Stanley use?
Microsoft Azure is its strategic cloud: a June 2, 2021 partnership moved workloads to Azure, added Microsoft 365 and GitHub, and set the two companies to co-design Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services. Microsoft's announcement describes the firm's approach as 'cloud-first and multi-cloud'. Morgan Stanley has not published which other cloud providers it uses or how much of its estate is in public cloud.
What AI models does Morgan Stanley use?
Mainly OpenAI's. Its wealth unit was among the first GPT-4 users in March 2023, and its advisor Assistant, Debrief, AskResearchGPT and DevGen.AI are built on OpenAI models; it was a design partner for ChatGPT for Financial Services in September 2026. CEO Ted Pick said in April 2026 the firm was using a beta version of Anthropic's Claude Mythos model.
What is DevGen.AI?
An internally developed platform built on OpenAI's GPT models that analyzes old codebases and decomposes them into schematic maps engineers use to rebuild applications in modern languages; newer models now automate parts of the translation. By February 2026 it had helped modernize about 16 million lines of code supporting trading, wealth management and client platforms. A Morgan Stanley patent covers generating new code from legacy code with LLMs.
How much does Morgan Stanley spend on technology?
It does not publish a technology budget. The closest line is information processing and communications expense, $4,418 million in 2025 against $4,088 million in 2024 and $3,775 million in 2023, per the 2025 10-K. The CFO attributes higher technology-driven spend to infrastructure, AI-enabled efficiencies and business growth.
What data platform does Morgan Stanley use for AI?
Snowflake, which it named strategic partner of the year in 2025 after seven years of working together, moving from data warehousing to AI-driven workloads. In wealth management, CIO Hina Shamsi says the division shifted from account-centric to relationship-centric data about eight years ago and is now building a semantic layer that generative AI and agents can understand.
- Morgan Stanley and Microsoft collaborate to accelerate cloud transformation
- Snowflake Named 2025 Strategic Partner of the Year by Morgan Stanley
- A look inside the AI playbook at Morgan Stanley's wealth division (Hina Shamsi, CIO of wealth management technology)
- Key Milestone in Innovation Journey with OpenAI
- Morgan Stanley's Tech Chief Used AI to Crack a Major Coding Problem
- 'AI is our friend': Bank CEOs weigh the tech's risks, rewards
- Aladdin Wealth Launches AI-Enabled Commentary Tool for Wealth Advisors; Morgan Stanley’s Portfolio Risk Platform First to Implement
- Why Morgan Stanley open-sourced its app development tool
- Morgan Stanley Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025
- Introducing ChatGPT for Financial Services
- Morgan Stanley Research Announces AskResearchGPT
- Morgan Stanley cut its riskiest reconciliation job in half by making its agents less autonomous
- Morgan Stanley (MS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- Morgan Stanley (MS) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
- Morgan Stanley 2026 Proxy Statement (DEF 14A)
- Morgan Stanley uses AI evals to shape the future of financial services
- Morgan Stanley will soon open its trillion-dollar wealth management funnel to AI agents
- Morgan Stanley's 2026 MD list: AI experts; ex-hedge fund traders; biotech bankers
- Morgan Stanley's Tech Boss Says AI Coding Has 'Profound' Impact
- Wirehouse rolls out AI tools throughout its wealth management division
- US 12,360,791 B1: Generating new software code from legacy software code using large language models (Morgan Stanley Services Group)
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