From interoperability to agents: Powering financial workflows with AI

At Microsoft Ignite 2025, LSEG and Microsoft shared how our partnership is addressing key challenges in financial services including fragmented workflows, time-intensive processes, and the need for trusted, actionable insights. 

Financial professionals often spend hours navigating multiple systems and gathering data. For example, preparing pitchbooks often take 15 to 30 hours per week, traders face operational risks from manual processes, and analysts may spend days compiling filings and news. In fast-moving markets, these inefficiencies reduce performance, increase risk and drive-up costs.

Solving these challenges started with interoperability – connecting systems to reduce friction and enable data flow. But as workflows have grown more complex, connectivity alone is not always enough. The next evolution is [building] agentic experiences with AI that understands intent, orchestrates tasks, and delivers insights seamlessly. By combining LSEG’s trusted data and analytic models with Microsoft’s AI and productivity tools, we are transforming customer workflows and streamlining the path from insight to action.

LSEG and Microsoft’s partnership is redefining financial industry workflows by:

• Enhancing LSEG Workspace using AI for intelligent discovery and analysis. 
• Integrating with Microsoft platforms like Teams, Excel, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. 
• Enabling organisations to build custom AI agents using LSEG’s trusted data. 

As Matthew Kerner, CTO of the Worldwide Sales and Solutions team at Microsoft, explained, this shift as more than a technology upgrade – it’s a blueprint for action:

“When we began this journey, the ambition wasn’t to sprinkle AI across existing tools – that’s incremental. Our goal is transformative: to reimagine workflows so that decisions happen faster and with confidence. In financial services, where milliseconds matter and trust is non-negotiable, this evolution from interoperability to intelligent agents changes the game. These agents don’t just connect systems. They understand intent, orchestrate tasks, and deliver insights seamlessly.” 

The session showcased practical examples of how these capabilities transform workflows across research, trading, and maker scenarios. 

• Accelerating research and pitchbooks through AI in LSEG Workspace 
  

Pitchbooks and research packs are essential but time-consuming. Implementing AI in Workspace is set to change that, with capabilities such as natural language search, summarisation, and agentic workflows (currently in pilot) enabling teams to create reports in minutes, complete with citations and audit trails.

As Nej D’Jelal, Group Head of Workspace Platform at LSEG, noted:

“Workspace is designed for decisions. By bringing generative AI and trusted LSEG data together, we help teams build pitch materials and research packs with confidence – complete with citations, context, and collaboration”.

These capabilities deliver actionable insights, integrated workflows, and secure collaboration – all in one place.

And all underpinned by data readiness: clean, structured inputs that strengthen LLM performance; and user‑first design, shaped by customer feedback to drive adoption.

• Integrated experiences: Insights where you work

Not every workflow starts in Workspace. Many professionals live in Microsoft Teams, Excel, or Microsoft 365 Copilot. LSEG’s data and analytics are now natively available in these tools, enabling seamless integration between or within workflows.  

Open Directory gives users the tools to surface, share and collaborate on content directly in Teams, using Microsoft’s Automated Domain Management (ADM) to ensure secure and compliant inter-company workflows. 

“Think about the daily reality of a financial professional jumping between systems, chasing data and losing time. By embedding LSEG’s trusted data directly into Microsoft experiences like Teams, Excel, and Copilot, we’re collapsing those barriers. Insights now surface where work actually happens. That means fewer clicks, richer context, and better outcomes. It’s not just convenience – it’s about empowering decisions at the speed of markets, without sacrificing governance or security.” As Matthew Kerner shared, this integration is what makes AI practical. It’s not about adding another tool, it’s about meeting professionals where they work, so insights flow naturally into collaboration and execution. This is how interoperability becomes impact.”

A practical illustration of this approach is Microsoft Treasury’s internal decision hub, Qiro, which integrates LSEG market intelligence with internal systems to manage risk at scale. While not a product, Qiro demonstrates how combining trusted data with agentic workflows supports mission critical decisions in real time.

• Custom agents: Democratising innovation

Some workflows require more than standard tools. With LSEG’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector in Microsoft Copilot Studio, organisations can create custom agents that combine LSEG’s trusted datasets with internal systems quickly and safely, without heavy coding.

Max Grigoryev, Analytics and AI Product Leader at LSEG, highlighted:

“We’ve lowered the barrier so financial professionals can build agentic workflows in minutes – secure, governed, and powered by trusted data.” 

This approach enhances access to LSEG’s trusted data and analytic models, enabling organisations to embed domain‑specific intelligence into their own workflows.

These innovations are built on a modernised data architecture on Microsoft Azure, combined with semantic enrichment, structured data readiness, and enterprise-grade governance. This ensures every AI interaction is accurate, auditable, and secure. Data readiness matters: clean, structured data enables strong LLM performance. User-first design, shaped by customer input, drives adoption.

The spread of AI and new applications is democratising data like never before, but financial institutions need data they can trust. Combining LSEG’s deep connectivity across financial services with Microsoft’s technology expertise to help customers: 

• Make decisions backed by trusted, auditable data.
• Execute faster with integrated workflows.
• Collaborate better, but securely, across institutions.

Across the sector, professionals lose valuable time switching between systems and chasing data – inefficiencies that cost global institutions millions. The partnership helps customers move from insight to action, responsibly and at scale, minimising the cost of fragmentation and unlocking measurable gains across research, trading, and operations.

• AI is moving from isolated tools to being embedded in integrated financial workflows, meeting users where they work.
• Trusted data is non-negotiable for financial services; speed alone is not enough.
• Agentic workflows and maker enablement are lowering barriers for innovation without compromising governance.
• Collaboration and interoperability are as critical as analytics, bringing productivity and communication together.

This partnership demonstrates how horizontal platform capabilities and vertical domain expertise combine to deliver measurable impact.