London – September 19, 2026 -- Confidence in alternative data budgets has reached its highest level in three years, with 97% of data buyers expecting spend to increase or hold steady over the next 12 months, according to Neudata's new report, The Future of Alternative and Market Data 2026.
Budget optimism climbs to a record high among data buyers
The figure is up from 89% last year, marking the strongest confidence Neudata has recorded since launching the survey three years ago. The report draws on 191 responses from data providers and buyers globally, the firm's largest sample to date, spanning quant, multi-strategy, discretionary and macro funds as well as AI research labs. Sixty percent of buyer respondents manage over $1 billion in assets.
AI delivers efficiency gains more than investment performance improvements
56% of buyers said their firm has measured a tangible return from AI deployment over the past 12 months. Efficiency gains were the most commonly cited benefit at 41%, compared with just 17% who credited AI with improving investment performance.
MCP access spreads across providers while pricing models remain unsettled
44% of data providers said they now offer access via Model Context Protocol (MCP), and more than half of those charge no additional fee for it.
A third of buyers report deteriorating data quality over the past two years
33% of buyers said the quality of their data sources has declined over the past one to two years, with opinion split on whether AI-generated content is responsible.
Weak signal strength remains the top reason trials fail to convert to purchases
39% of buyers cited a lack of discernible signal as the main reason a trial does not lead to a purchase, ahead of price, cited by 25%.
Rado Lipuš, CEO and founder of Neudata, said the survey shows continued confidence in the value of alternative and market data, but that AI's role in reshaping the market is the key variable to watch, particularly its effect on data quality, pricing and investment performance going forward.