How CEOs can stay clear-eyed during the stock market’s AI selloff

We’ve seen it before. When the internet bubble popped in 2000—the S&P plunged 49% in 31 months—many people concluded, “You see? That internet thing was a big nothing.” Obviously they were wrong. The market had a seizure. Companies that were flimsily financed failed. But the technology continued to change the world.

AI, poised to be the next transformative general-purpose technology following the internet, is set to reshape the world to an even greater extent than the internet did, irrespective of market sentiment. Executives should shift their focus from the pervasive red indicators on Wall Street to the critical task of readying their companies for profound shifts. Consider these three questions as prompts, escalating in their mind-expanding potential:

–When will your company’s agentic AI disburse money all by itself? At Coins2Day’s latest Emerging CFO program last week, I asked three CFOs if they were letting AI do that already. Their answers ranged from “No” to “No!” But after thinking for a few moments, one of them said, “Within certain guardrails I think absolutely you’ll get there, especially on low-dollar, low-risk transactional type of things. I can certainly see that being a case.” Rethinking the impossible will have to become a habit.

–Are you prepared for AGI? Artificial general intelligence has no strict definition, but in the AI world it usually means intelligence greater than human intelligence. Experts generally estimate AGI will be achieved sometime between the late 2020s and early 2030s. As that day approaches, leaders face a challenge unique in history: how to run an organization in a world where humans are, as AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton has said, the second-smartest species on the planet.

–When will the one-person, billion-dollar company arrive? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his tech CEO friends started a betting pool on the answer to that question almost two years ago, as mentioned in last Friday’s note. For them, it’s a question of when, not if. How would you bet? How would your organization fare against a competitor with just a CEO and a whole lot of AI?

While much of this may sound outlandish, it's essential to face it. Ultimately, there will be those who succeed and those who falter. As is typical with any novel, broad-reaching technology, bold creativity will prevail.—Geoff Colvin

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]

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S&P 500 futures are up 0.29% this morning. The last session closed down 0.83%. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.06% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.15% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.34%. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.44%. The South Korea KOSPI was down 0.61%. India’s NIFTY 50 is up 0.55%. Bitcoin was up at $95K.

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CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Claire Zillman.