By COURTNEY DEGEN

Artificial intelligence will have a tremendous impact on the economy, healthcare and other industries, executives from BlackRock and Invesco said Feb. 12 at the Exchange ETF conference in Miami Beach, Fla.

“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 there are other investing themes that will come from AI, such as semiconductors, software and cybersecurity.

Both McCormack and Jacobs said there are also opportunities for AI to be used in important healthcare developments.

Given that 2024 will be a record-breaking year for the number of people over age 65, there will be a lot of money in medical innovations that serve an aging population, Jacobs said, which can be aided by AI.

“The average drug today costs about $2 billion dollars to develop and takes 10 years from idea to hitting the market. With AI, we expect that it can reduce both the cost and the timeline to coming to market by about 25 to 50%,” Jacobs said.

Therefore, healthcare can be a big theme this year, “but (only) because it sits at the intersection of so many exciting things like AI, like aging populations,” and other advancements.

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