AI is driving enormous investment and soaring valuations, but what do financial markets reveal about its long-term economic impact?

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Howard Marks Presidential Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, and Maryam Farboodi, Associate Professor at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, examine how investors are pricing the promise and risk of transformative AI. They discuss why Treasury yields fell following major AI announcements, whether high AI stock valuations reflect productivity gains or speculation, and what the dot-com era can teach us about today's AI boom.

The conversation also explores AI's potential effect on inequality, the risks of regulation that slows adoption, and the skills people will need in an AI-driven economy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI can help financial institutions detect fraud, manage risk, and improve productivity. But when AI systems begin acting autonomously, they may also create risks at a speed and scale people cannot easily oversee.

Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, explores what agentic AI means for financial markets and financial regulation. She explains why regulators must move beyond a simple human-versus-machine framing, build meaningful accountability and guardrails around AI systems, and prepare for the potential of market feedback loops, manipulation, and collusion between autonomous agents.

Breeden also discusses the unprecedented pace of investment in AI infrastructure, the uncertainty around its eventual payoff, and how financial regulators can support innovation while protecting stability and public trust.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI is changing what investors can analyze, how quickly they can act, and what it takes to find an edge.

Nikolai Roussanov, Moise Y. Safra Professor of Finance at Wharton, and Ingrid Tierens, Head of the Data Strategy team in the Global Investment Research division at Goldman Sachs, explore AI's expanding role in quantitative finance. They discuss how large language models and alternative data are transforming investment research, the competitive pressure AI creates across financial markets, and why human judgment remains essential when models encounter uncertainty.

They also consider the skills finance professionals will need in an AI-driven industry, from data literacy and technical fluency to communication, accountability, and the ability to ask better questions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.