Artificial intelligence will have a tremendous impact on the economy, health care and other industries, executives from BlackRock and Invesco said Monday at the Exchange ETF conference in Miami Beach.
"It's hard to overstate the impact of AI on the economy [and] on different industries," said Jay Jacobs, U.S. head of thematics and active-equity ETFs at BlackRock.
AI is what Jacobs called a "platform technology," meaning "it is going to bring other industries into the fold that maybe don't even exist today." Jacobs used the example of 4G technology, which has allowed individuals to do things on their phones such as shop online, post on social media and book flights.
Agreeing that the impact of AI cannot be overstated, Ryan McCormack, senior factor and core equity ETF strategist at Invesco U.S., said other investing themes will come from AI, such as semiconductors, software and cybersecurity.
Both McCormack and Jacobs said AI also could be used in important health care developments.
Given that 2024 will be a record-breaking year for the number of people over age 65, a lot of money will be invested in medical innovations that serve an aging population, which can be aided by AI, Jacobs said.
"The average drug today costs about $2 billion to develop and takes 10 years from idea to hitting the market,” he said. “With AI, we expect that it can reduce both the cost and the timeline to coming to market by about 25 to 50%.”