BlackRock's AI activity centers on Aladdin, the technology platform it uses for its own investment and risk management and offers to institutional investors; technology services and subscription revenue, mostly from Aladdin, was about USD 2.0 billion in 2025. The firm's annual report on Form 10-K says it uses machine learning and AI, expects to expand generative AI, and lists biased, inaccurate, or poorly managed AI among its risks. Aladdin is mainly risk analytics and portfolio software; generative AI is a newer layer on top of it.
Key takeaways
- Aladdin Enterprise is described in BlackRock's 2025 Form 10-K as a proprietary end-to-end investment and risk management platform.
- Technology services and subscription revenue was USD 1,981 million in 2025, up 24 percent, including about USD 210 million from the Preqin acquisition.
- The filing states that BlackRock uses machine learning and AI and expects to expand generative AI capabilities.
- BlackRock's Aladdin Copilot page says the assistant will not give investment advice and that users remain responsible for decisions.
- The Financial Stability Board has warned that dependence on a few technology suppliers can create system-wide vulnerabilities.
What Aladdin is
The filing, dated by its auditors February 25, 2026, covers the year ended December 31, 2025. It reports that BlackRock managed USD 14.0 trillion in assets at that date, with about 24,900 employees. Alongside asset management, the firm sells technology: Aladdin Enterprise, Aladdin Risk for risk analytics, eFront for alternative investment management, Aladdin Wealth for wealth managers, and the private markets data provider Preqin, acquired in March 2025.
The Form 10-K says Aladdin provided the majority of technology services and subscription revenue and that most positions managed on it are fixed income. Technology services and subscription revenue rose from USD 1,603 million in 2024 to USD 1,981 million in 2025. Those revenues are separate from the assets BlackRock manages, so the two headline numbers should not be mixed.
What the filing says about AI
Two passages matter. One states that BlackRock uses machine learning and AI in its business and expects to continue to expand its AI capabilities, including through generative AI. The other lists what could go wrong: new regulatory scrutiny, intellectual property litigation, data protection and confidentiality risks, social or ethical concerns, and models or data found insufficient, biased, or harmful. It also says generative AI can produce content that appears correct but is inaccurate, and that copyright questions are unsettled in US courts and elsewhere. A separate cybersecurity passage notes that generative AI in the hands of malicious actors heightens attack risks.
The filing also names AI as an area of continued investment in Aladdin and refers to investments in Aladdin AI copilots. It does not break out which Aladdin features use AI, does not give performance figures for AI tools, and does not describe autonomous trading by the platform. Online statements that Aladdin executes a fixed share of market trades on its own find no support in it.
Aladdin Copilot
BlackRock's product page describes Aladdin Copilot as a generative AI assistant that connects parts of the Aladdin platform and returns answers to questions about data a user is permitted to see. The page says it is available to all Aladdin clients, will not give investment advice, will not answer questions outside the platform's boundaries, and uses content filtering and parameters meant to reduce hallucinations and misinformation. Its disclaimer states that Aladdin users are solely responsible for their investment and other decisions. The page carries no date, and BlackRock does not publish accuracy statistics there, so the safeguards are design claims, not measured results.
Claims and what documents support
| Common claim | What a primary source supports | What remains unshown |
|---|---|---|
| Aladdin is an AI that manages markets | Form 10-K: a risk analytics and investment management platform used by BlackRock and institutional clients | Any autonomous trading or decision-making by the platform |
| BlackRock uses AI | Form 10-K: machine learning and AI are used and generative AI will expand | Which specific processes use AI and how well they perform |
| Aladdin Copilot helps investors choose assets | Product page: a query and drafting assistant that does not give investment advice | Independent testing of its answers |
| AI risk is ignored by the firm | Form 10-K risk factors name bias, inaccuracy, litigation, and regulatory scrutiny | Internal controls beyond the general statements |
What supervisors say about concentrated technology
The Financial Stability Board report of October 10, 2025 says authorities' monitoring of AI in finance is at an early stage and that generative AI depends on a small number of suppliers of hardware, cloud infrastructure, and pre-trained models. Its November 14, 2024 report named third-party dependencies and similar models or data across firms as vulnerabilities, because common inputs can push institutions toward similar decisions. The BlackRock filing makes a related point from the inside: Aladdin's data architecture and analytics depend on third-party providers, and a failure there could harm operations.
In the United States, the SEC proposed a rule in 2023 that would have required advisers and broker-dealers to address conflicts of interest from predictive data analytics. It formally withdrew the proposal on June 12, 2025, effective June 17, 2025. Existing rules still apply, as the March 18, 2024 settlements with Delphia and Global Predictions over overstated AI claims showed.
Information, not advice
This article summarizes public documents about a company's technology. It does not assess BlackRock's shares or funds, predict any price, or suggest buying, selling, or holding anything. Questions about investments belong with a registered adviser, and the primary documents listed below can be read in full.
FAQ
Is Aladdin an artificial intelligence system?
Aladdin is described in the 10-K as a technology platform for investment and risk management. The same filing says BlackRock uses machine learning and AI in its business, but it does not label Aladdin as an AI system as a whole.
Does BlackRock use generative AI?
Yes. The filing says the firm expects to expand AI capabilities through generative AI, and its product page presents Aladdin Copilot as a generative AI assistant for Aladdin clients.
Can Aladdin Copilot give investment advice?
BlackRock's page says it will not. It also states that users bear sole responsibility for decisions based on Aladdin calculations.
Where can the original filing be read?
BlackRock's Form 10-K for 2025 is posted on the SEC's EDGAR database, and the Financial Stability Board publishes its AI reports on its own website.
Related reading
- BlackRock and AI in finance
- AI fintech in Canada
- Automated systems in accounting
- AI in document review
More in AI in finance.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- BlackRock, Inc., annual report on Form 10-K for 2025, SEC EDGAR
- Aladdin Copilot product page, BlackRock, undated, read October 2026
- Monitoring Adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Related Vulnerabilities in the Financial Sector, Financial Stability Board, October 10, 2025
- Financial Stability Board, report on AI and financial stability, 2024
- Withdrawal of Proposed Regulatory Actions, Release No. 33-11377, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, June 12, 2025
- SEC announcement 2024-36 about two adviser settlements, March 2024