Robotics Stories: Is artificial intelligence getting real?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a prominent talking point for technology investors, mainly led over the past 18 months by chip manufacturers innovating and producing at unprecedented speeds and scale. An example of the power of AI can be seen in chip designer Nvidia whose share price, earnings, and net income drastically increased over the last year1 with an improvement in the breadth of demand and customer base for their sophisticated graphics processing units (GPUs). Cloud platforms, big data, cybersecurity, networking equipment and datacentre providers are all currently enabling the AI transition to progress. Orders are being placed by companies keen to ensure a consistent supply of the hardware and infrastructure needed to keep up with its processing and data-handling demands. Disruptive technologies, led by generative AI and large language models (LLMs), are beginning to create new possibilities for companies within and outside the technology space. Generative AI has the potential to help businesses streamline processes, increase efficiencies, and significantly increase the reach of automation from the industrial scale, all the way through to individual end customers around the globe. We see this as an inversion of the “AI pyramid”:
While investors’ focus (and capital!) is currently placed on the infrastructure and semiconductors, we believe the real AI economic value will shift towards the application and users of AI – enabling businesses embracing AI to drive new revenue streams, enhance productivity, or generate completely new companies. Industries with the potential to benefit are diverse – manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, transportation and healthcare are to name but a few. Investors may consider a more holistic approach on the investment landscape compared to traditional robotics or technology-centric approaches.
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