Milos Maricic: listen for the AI number on next week’s bank calls
Source: Fortune ·
Economists have described tech bubbles in detail. The most remarkable thing about the AI cycle might be how closely it follows the blueprint.
From the source
On September 14, at a Barclays conference, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan put a number on the bank’s AI program: 130 to 140 projects in place “at a cost of $400 million, generating a benefit of $800 million.” The bank has never given a dollar figure like that on an earnings call. On October 14 it reports third-quarter results, its first call since Moynihan spoke. Will the $800 million make it onto the call? I wouldn’t bet on it. My team went through 919 earnings calls of 60 major U.S.-listed financial firms since January 2023. One firm put a specific dollar figure on what AI had saved or earned it: S&P Global, about $9 million a year from its Kensho Scribe tool. Analysts asked for such a number 29 times and never got one. Among 100 major U.S. companies outside tech, communications and finance, only FedEx has done so on a call, crediting “a new AI image capture process” with a surcharge benefit of “over $180 million annualized.” That makes two companies in 160. “We don’t have the…