Most firms assume the choice is buy everything or build everything, when in practice it rarely is. This panel brings together buy-side technologists at different points on the spectrum - full vendor, hybrid, and internal build - alongside the providers supporting each model, to unpack how that decision gets made: cost, speed, strategic differentiation, and where modular vendor components fit in between.

AI-assisted coding is lowering the barrier to data analysis on the desk, and some firms are already hiring technical, non-market profiles and training them straight into trading roles. Others maintain that the dedicated quant layer stays essential - AI changes what quants do, not whether desks need them, since deeper modelling, infrastructure and analytics still demand specialist skills. But opinion sits across a wide spectrum, shaped by desk type, flow, and how far firms have got in building a new generation of quant-style traders. This panel brings together heads of desk and heads of technology to explore where firms stand on skills, hiring and team structure in the AI era.