We believe we are approaching a structural inflection point in investment manufacturing.

Within the next five to ten years, it will become increasingly natural, perhaps even unavoidable, to design most indices and investment strategies through software that blends expert systems with generative AI and/or intuitive UI. This "index technology" will translate almost any prompt (an intuition, a thesis, constraints, a research note, a risk view) into a fully specified, investable, index-grade strategy, accompanied by transparent methodology, robust risk management, and a clear analysis of biases, exposures, and failure modes.

From idea to investable, at the speed of software.

Indexing is becoming a strategic software layer

Index construction is not merely technical. Indices shape the language of markets: they define categories, narratives, and benchmarks. Because trillions are managed against indices through index funds, ETFs, and systematic mandates, indices increasingly influence flows and market structure.

As passive and systematic approaches keep gaining share, the industrial process that manufactures strategies becomes central. The next leap is not "one more theme" or "one more factor." It is the emergence of a universal, self-service indexing layer: a platform that makes strategy design, testing, documentation, and lifecycle management fast, repeatable, and scalable.

This layer will shape what becomes "default": inclusion rules, standard filters, the computation of ESG and factor metrics, and the risk controls considered normal. Over time, such defaults can become invisible assumptions: subtle, pervasive, and consequential.

Today's reality: fragmentation and technological debt

Despite the importance of indices, much of the industry still operates with a fragmented toolchain.

Research and production are often separated, with weak continuity between prototype and index-grade implementation. Methodology work frequently relies on scattered code, isolated notebooks, sometimes spreadsheets. Many workflows remain manual. Rulebooks are often drafted as Word/PDF documents after the fact, creating translation risk between what is written and what the engine actually does. Corporate actions, calendars, execution assumptions, and data governance are difficult to industrialize without a unified system.

This is not about competence. It is about structural technological debt in a domain historically built on bespoke craftsmanship and long-established processes.

The race has started, and it is global

Large index providers, especially in the United States, are investing heavily to build this next layer internally or through acquisitions. Whoever owns the tooling that manufactures strategies at scale gains a structural advantage in speed, cost, and ubiquity.

Europe still has time. Even the most advanced actors are not fully there yet, and adoption among asset managers will take time. But the direction is clear: the shift toward systematic approaches looks structural, AI capabilities are accelerating, and software economics steadily outperform fragmented production models. Self-service indexing is, in our view, inevitable.

Why all of this matters

Most people already understand the high stakes of foundational digital infrastructure: AI stacks, cloud, payments, cybersecurity, data governance. We believe index technology belongs in the same category. Especially if one of its avatars were to become the default operating system for creating and governing investable strategies.

If a self-service indexing platform becomes ubiquitous, used by index providers, asset managers, banks, and even wealth platforms (through direct/custom indexing), then its standards become the market's standards, and its defaults shape outcomes. Its data choices, metric methodologies, inclusion and exclusion conventions, and embedded risk frameworks can influence capital allocation at scale.

The question is not whether self-service indexing will arrive. The question is who will define the standard, and whose assumptions will quietly shape the market. At that point, we hope "what is at stake" is becoming clear for our reader: ensuring that all financial actors are not dependent on one single technology, and ensuring the next indexing infrastructure layers are aligned with values of transparency, competition, openness, and resilience.

At MCFT, we are building a prototype of what we consider a total index technology: fast, modular, AI-native, transparent, and designed for portability through open specifications. We will come back in another companion article on the technological challenges encountered when building such a technology.

The MCFT Founders - Romain Charlassier, Jonathan Klein and Lucas Mouilleron