By Hannah Webster | Updated on Jun 11, 2026 at 01:04 PM
Apollo Global Management Inc. is assessing every new investment opportunity in the software industry for AI disruption risk, as asset managers try to quell investor concerns that rapid advances in the technology could make businesses obsolete.
Rob Bittencourt, head of thematic investing at the firm, said the firm developed a new framework for assessing risk last year, dividing software into 12 to 14 categories, and ranking them by susceptibility to AI disruption.
“We also went through our existing portfolio and overlaid that framework on top of our existing portfolio last year to determine where we might want to move on and minimize our risk,” Bittencourt said on a Bloomberg Intelligence podcast released Thursday.
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Apollo’s move follows similar efforts by other asset managers to quantify and cut AI-related risk after investor concerns about heavy exposure to software companies dragged shares lower and fueled outflows from the $1.8 trillion private credit industry. Ares Management Corp. in April said it hired an outside consultant to examine software-oriented investments in its largest publicly traded private credit fund. Blackstone Inc. and Blue Owl Capital Inc. conducted internal evaluations of their investments.
Bittencourt, who described advances in AI as “probably the most profound platform shift that the industry has ever faced,” said that businesses with workflows easily managed by AI are most at risk. He pointed to data visualization as an example.
Apollo also screened businesses that are protected from the threat of AI. Healthcare, for example, is heavily regulated, making it harder for businesses in that industry to adopt AI, Bittencourt said.
He said Apollo’s framework also took into account companies’ management and spending on research and development, and the firm looked for managers with “strategic urgency to adapt.”
“Are they acting and articulating a strategic vision that has enough urgency that reflects the pace of change that’s occurring in the underlying technology?” Bittencourt asked. “Those are soft factors, but I think they’re going to be more and more important over time.”