CEOs Extol Benefits of AI on Earnings Calls But Not in Official Filings (ft.com) 22
S&P 500 groups from a burrito maker to a cruise-ship operator tout promise of emerging technology. From a report: The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has sparked excitement in industries from fast food to theme parks, with executives rushing to show how they will be among beneficiaries of the new technology. Analysis of their regulatory filings, however, suggests much of the talk is only talk. Almost 40 per cent of companies in the blue-chip S&P 500 index have mentioned AI or related terms in earnings calls in the latest financial quarter, according to data from Alphasense. Less than one in six -- 16 per cent -- mentioned it in their corresponding regulatory filings, highlighting how AI has yet to make a material impact for the vast majority of companies.
"The joke out there was that all you had to do last quarter was say 'AI' and your stock would pop immediately," said Bryant VanCronkhite, a senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, the $550bn asset manager. "Some companies are saying they're doing AI when they're really just trying to figure out the basics of automation. The pretenders will be shown up for that at some point," he said.
"The joke out there was that all you had to do last quarter was say 'AI' and your stock would pop immediately," said Bryant VanCronkhite, a senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, the $550bn asset manager. "Some companies are saying they're doing AI when they're really just trying to figure out the basics of automation. The pretenders will be shown up for that at some point," he said.
Well, of course (Score:4, Insightful)
Because perjury is a thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Perjury only applies when you are under oath, such as in a court of law. I don't think any of those folks under oath on an earnings call.
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But it does apply to official filings, which is my point.
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Not perjury, just "joining the hype".
Unless you're an Apple, you have to get in on the hype train just to placate shareholders. When blockchain was the hot buzzword a few years ago, everyone tried to blockchain everything because that was the hotness.
Today, AI is the hostness and shareholders want to make sure you as CEO know about it. Even if you can't use AI at all, they want to know you're looking into it. A few years later you can say " your AI efforts didn't really pan out" even if you didn't spent a c
Basics of automation (Score:3, Insightful)
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Exactly.
If they're profitable without automation, they'll go much further with it. It's a clear win, whereas AI is questionable at best as to whether or not it even can be made useful beyond "that's an amazing gimmick" - LLM type AI specifically, of course. There is a lot of AI advancements which are proving to come along well in the audio/video realm.
AI (Score:2)
Will CEOs Be Laughing (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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Guess though who chooses who will the AI replace
The board of directors.
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On the contrary (Score:3)
On the contrary, I suspect those "trying to figure out automation" will actually walk away with something more beneficial, long-term, than those throwing money at the problem of AI.
We are a long way away from "good enough" AI results, and that is an NP problem. It's not going to solve itself - and in fact, we're getting further from "good enough" in the past couple years. Things are degrading.
Open the pod bay doors HAL (Score:2)
We have to let the investor money roll in.
Sounds like AI is a sales pitch... (Score:2)
AI isn't a real product and it's not even a good pitch, they've been using it for over 30 years and it's never actually meant anything.
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Sounds like the c-suite knows AI is just a sales pitch and not really a product.
This.
And if you put stuff in official filings that turns out not to be true, you could get your ass kicked by investors and/or the SEC. Best to leave the bullshit for the ad copy.
Buy on the rumor/expectation, sell on the news (Score:2)
Less than one in six -- 16 per cent -- mentioned it in their corresponding regulatory filings, highlighting how AI has yet to make a material impact for the vast majority of companies.
This is how the stock market has always worked. If new technology makes it to the top or bottom lines, it's already too late to make money on the stock because it has already appreciated. Just like 10 years ago with DNNs, there is tremendous hype about generative AI. And just like 10 years ago, some companies will find ways to use the new tech but a lot will not. The key is figuring out which companies will succeed and which will not. Again, just as expected.
No they won't... (Score:2)
The pretenders will be shown up for that at some point
Historically speaking, no they won't. If the hype settles and they still lag what is considered "valuable" AI adoption, no one will even remember that CEO on that call that uttered empty buzzwords. They'll be too busy thinking about *that days* empty buzzwords that the CEO is uttering onto the call.
This part of valuation is just making sure the CEOs know *what* the current buzzword is, not really gauging their actual ability to execute or what value they might derive from said buzzword.
If I bang my head real hard this time... (Score:1)