AI In the Workplace
While widely recognized as transformative, AI’s current use-case in the corporate world sparks debate among investors. Is it a futuristic promise, or are companies today actively hiring AI talent to deliver tangible results?
While most agree that artificial intelligence (AI) is an incredible technology, investors may have varying perceptions about its current real-world impact. Is AI simply a futuristic technology with more promise than practical application, or are companies actively hiring for AI-related skills to drive real-world impact?
- Unlike some prior innovations whose practical applications have taken longer to materialize, such as the Metaverse, we believe today’s AI enthusiasm is justified by measurable gains in productivity and profit margins, while growing adoption is driving demand for AI-related skills. As shown in the chart above, the share of online jobs listing AI skills—such as “artificial intelligence,” “neural networks,” or “ChatGPT”—has doubled in 2024 to over 1.6% of all online job listings. While this share may seem modest, we believe the jump in 2024 underscores the accelerating demand for AI skills, especially given that ChatGPT launched just two years ago.
- The demand for AI skills extends beyond the tech industry. Nearly one-third of industries now include AI skills in more than 1% of their job postings, up from less than a quarter of industries in 2022. Moreover, non-tech jobs postings seeking AI skills include roles such as proofreaders, writers, economists, biological scientists, sales engineers, marketing managers, financial specialists, and management analysts.
- We believe the rising demand for AI expertise reflects the technology’s growing impact in the business world. In fact, a recent Morgan Stanley survey of over 400 companies found that 90% of corporate AI projects met or beat expectations.1 In our view, these trends support today’s AI enthusiasm and potential investment opportunities in AI enablers and adopters.
1 “Gen AI Adoption – 2 Years In” Morgan Stanley, October 7, 2024
The views expressed are the views of Fred Alger Management, LLC (“FAM”) and its affiliates as of November 2024. These views are subject to change at any time and may not represent the views of all portfolio management teams. These views should not be interpreted as a guarantee of the future performance of the markets, any security or any funds managed by FAM. These views are not meant to provide investment advice and should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell securities.
Risk Disclosures: Investing in the stock market involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. Growth stocks may be more volatile than other stocks as their prices tend to be higher in relation to their companies’ earnings and may be more sensitive to market, political, and economic developments. Local, regional or global events such as environmental or natural disasters, war, terrorism, pandemics, outbreaks of infectious diseases and similar public health threats, recessions, or other events could have a significant impact on investments. Investing in companies of small capitalizations involves the risk that such issuers may have limited product lines or financial resources, lack management depth, or have limited liquidity. Assets may be focused in a small number of holdings, making them susceptible to risks associated with a single economic, political or regulatory event than a more diversified portfolio. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Investors whose reference currency differs from that in which the underlying assets are invested may be subject to exchange rate movements that alter the value of their investments. Companies involved in, or exposed to, AI-related businesses may have limited product lines, markets, financial resources or personnel as they face intense competition and potentially rapid product obsolescence, and many depend significantly on retaining and growing their consumer base. These companies may be substantially exposed to the market and business risks of other industries or sectors, and may be adversely affected by negative developments impacting those companies, industries or sectors, as well as by loss or impairment of intellectual property rights or misappropriation of their technology. Companies that utilize AI could face reputational harm, competitive harm, and legal liability, and/or an adverse effect on business operations as content, analyses, or recommendations that AI applications produce may be deficient, inaccurate, biased, misleading or incomplete, may lead to errors, and may be used in negligent or criminal ways. AI companies, especially smaller companies, tend to be more volatile than companies that do not rely heavily on technology. Investing in innovation is not without risk and there is no guarantee that investments in research and development will result in a company gaining market share or achieving enhanced revenue. Companies exploring new technologies may face regulatory, political or legal challenges that may adversely impact their competitive positioning and financial prospects. Developing technologies to displace older technologies or create new markets may not in fact do so, and there may be sector-specific risks. There will be winners and losers that emerge, and investors need to conduct a significant amount of due diligence on individual companies to assess these risks and opportunities.
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