From time to time, I take a break from telling stories of how clients are impacted by their financial decisions and jump into a niche topic.
This week, I want to get you up to speed with what’s going on with AI. Now understand this: AI plays a crucial role in all our lives in ways we don’t fully comprehend just yet.
There are two types of AI: Generative and Agentic. Generative is a reactive style that will create text, images, or code based on what you tell it to do. Agentic is the proactive approach where you can design an AI agent to focus on planning, goal-oriented tasks, and execution of multi-step workflows with little human oversight.
Below is a great example that Parallel Portfolio’s Greg Towner sent to our group most recently.
“Originally, AI was being used at the corporate level as an efficiency and cost-cutting tool. While that is still an emphasis, we are starting to see more mentions of it being used in product creation and sales-related usage. Below is one example. We continue to expect AI to impact nearly every industry in the years ahead.
Scientists at paint manufacturer PPG built a database containing the properties of all their products, overlaid with the laws of chemistry. Then, about a year ago, they asked the system to create something new—a fast-drying clear coat that body shops could apply after repainting a car.
Within minutes, the system suggested a combination of chemicals PPG’s scientists hadn’t thought of. Real-world testing proved that it worked, and last spring the clear coat, which cuts drying time by more than half, went on sale. It was PPG’s first AI-assisted new product. Dozens more are in the pipeline.
‘What’s really exciting in this field is when the model picks formulations that you intuitively would not have,’ said Daniel Connor, the company’s global technical director for automotive refinish coatings.”
Of the hundreds and thousands of companies that are going to integrate AI into their everyday use or to find a competitive vantage, there will be losers, and there will be winners.
Without throwing a dart at one of them to guess who is going to be the winner or loser, there are ways to invest to benefit from the AI boom without buying into the Mag 7 or other heavy tech stocks. Here are a few ways to do so: the energy sector will see demand increase, hence natural gas will be an AI play; China’s Alibaba, as they have an AI and chip division; and CRMs, as they use it to smooth out their development and client engagement.
These conversations can be fun, but I encourage you to reach out if you, a family member, or a friend have questions on how to invest their money to best be positioned for the coming years—just reply to this email and let’s set up a quick call to talk through your goals and options.
- Peyton
P.S. - Here are a few things I am reading/watching/listening to:
