Peter Gbedemah CEO of P65 Investments.

AI is revolutionising the way we live, work, and how we address global challenges. From accelerating personalised medical treatments by understanding patient’s unique biological profiles and responses, to driving e-discovery through enabling software to assess vast numbers of documents in minutes. AI is also monitoring deforestation, tracking wildlife populations, and even predicting natural disasters like forest fires and floods.

Among all of these interventions – which will drive economic and social development, one area which has received less attention is how AI can strengthen investors and investment decisions. When this is done well, investment firms can drive global economic growth, saving companies from bankruptcy and preserving jobs.

As CEO of P65 Ventures (a capital investors firm specialising in angel, private equity and real estate investments) and as a Director and Investor for the UK’s largest SuperCar Club, I’ve seen how difficult it can be to assess companies’ value. Too often we have to rely on data and information self-reported by companies, creating positive biases. Data accumulation is also slow, and lags behind companies’ actual performance or position.

AI can change that. It enables the interrogation of vast, disparate datasets to extract trends from a huge range of unstructured data, including financial news articles, analyst research reports, regulatory filings, and financial metrics. This saves days and hours for many people in investor teams like mine.

AI also enables us to assess new sources such as tonal sentiment during earnings calls. It can detect what management teams are saying and how. For instance, if the management team is speaking confidently and positively, the outlook for the company could be good. But, evasive speech could demonstrate to poor prospects.

AI can also support engagement between investors and clients or other stakeholders, strengthening customer experience and trust in the financial system. Chat-bot driven systems can assess customer complaints and manage routine questions, freeing-up staff time to focus on more complex cases.

All of this means that AI could transform investment processes and investments, transforming economies and businesses across the globe with positive implications for billions of people.

To truly unlock the potential capabilities of AI across all sectors including investment, the potential challenges and risks of the technology must be understood and safeguarded.

It is crucial to protect personal information collected and used through AI by implementing robust data and privacy measures that prevent AI systems from hacking attempts, data breaches, and unauthorized access. Companies must also ensure that biases in algorithms and training data are identified and addressed to prevent perpetuating existing inequalities. We must make sure that all individuals are served equitably.

To deliver this, governments, financial institutions, and technology companies must collaborate. Governments create enabling regulatory environments that can spark innovation and protect consumer rights. Financial institutions ensure AI solutions are accessible to everyone by investing in the technology’s research, development, and infrastructure. Finally, technology companies can develop user-friendly applications and platforms that cater to the unique needs of investors across the globe.

Ultimately, by advancing AI technologies, mitigating risks, and investing in transformative cross-sector partnerships, AI will catalyse industrial-revolution sized economic development with benefits for everyone, everywhere.