Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment insights, today launched Morningstar Direct AI, a reimagined, agentic software experience for its flagship platform. Live today for global users, Direct AI is designed to allow investment professionals to uncover insights, explore opportunities, and perform analysis that was previously fragmented across tools, dependent on institutional knowledge, or required considerable manual workarounds.
Morningstar has launched Direct AI, an agentic software experience for its flagship Direct platform.
Direct AI is live today for global users and includes an all-new browser-based interface.
It initially introduces three agents: Product Development Agent, Distribution Agent and Manager Research Agent.
The agents are grounded in Morningstar's data, analytics, research and ratings across millions of securities and entities.
Morningstar's frameworks, including Morningstar Categories and Medalist Ratings, are built into the agents' logic.
Morningstar is also making its investment intelligence available through Claude, Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT.
"AI and agents are only as valuable as the data that powers them," said Scott Brown, President, Direct Platform at Morningstar. "With Direct AI, we're putting the full breadth of our independent research, data, and insights into agents that fit naturally into clients' workflows. It accelerates our mission to empower investor success."
In addition to an all-new, browser-based interface, Direct AI initially introduces three agents built specifically for the mission-critical tasks our clients value most:
Product Development Agent helps asset managers fine tune their product positioning and launch decisions. It combines Morningstar flows data and category analysis to help answer questions like “Which Morningstar categories show strong demand but limited competition?” and “How long did comparable products take to reach $1 billion in assets?”
Distribution Agent helps sales and marketing teams working to get funds onto a firm’s approved list or into a model portfolio. Using proprietary Morningstar classifications and portfolio tools, including those designed to analyze portfolios that hold both public and private securities, this agent identifies gaps in an existing model portfolio, demonstrates where a given fund could fit, and shows how it would change the model. Then it can help prepare talking points for the review meeting.
Manager Research Agent helps due diligence teams vet investment strategies. It applies the same framework Morningstar's analysts use to evaluate portfolios, using Morningstar’s deep datasets to help answer questions like “Has this fund’s trading behavior changed recently?” and “Which market environments have helped or hurt performance?”
Each of the agents is grounded in Morningstar's data, analytics, research, and ratings that span millions of securities and entities across a diverse range of asset classes, including funds, equities, fixed income, and a variety of other financial products. Backed by the firm’s more than 1,100 research analysts globally, Morningstar’s investment experience and proprietary frameworks—from Morningstar Categories and Medalist Ratings to the new Active/Passive Strategy Type and Semiliquid Adjusted Cost Estimate—are built into the logic, and can help investment professionals make more informed, defensible decisions.
Alongside Direct AI, Morningstar is making its investment intelligence available through Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and ChatGPT, aimed at helping users access answers and insights wherever they choose to work
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment insights in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The Company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers and owners, retirement plan providers and sponsors, institutional investors in the debt and private capital markets, and alliances and redistributors. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $375 billion in AUMA as of June 30, 2026.
