Last summer, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) started creating a team of data scientists and investors to explore alternative sources of data outside of traditional sources like Bloomberg. The CPPIB, for example, used a public registry to study the movements of U.S.-based realtors between different firms to determine what was attracting them to certain companies. (Financial Post)

Talking point: The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s recent job posting seeking a director with expertise in data science and machine learning indicates that incumbent pension plans are formally embracing emerging technology. Having access to more data sources means firms can make more informed investment decisions. It can also help them build machine-learning tools to analyze research more effectively; for example, to understand automotive trends like electric-vehicle and ride-sharing service adoption, the CPPIB used a machine-learning algorithm to take broad, regional datasets and study them by more specific factors like wealth and where exactly purchases were concentrated. Some venture capital firms are already leveraging data expertise to better attract potential portfolio companies; Georgian Partners has an impact team that offers technological expertise to companies developing products in difficult fields like artificial intelligence.