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Artificial intelligence captured the spotlight early this year and has remained an area of focus for virtually every sector. Since the release of ChatGPT, interest in generative AI has exploded as investors become captivated by the possibilities AI presents in the form of improved investment outcomes.

In fact, investor interest has been running so hot that corporate management is trying to attract more investors by talking about AI on their earnings calls. According to BlackRock, mentions of AI on company earnings calls have skyrocketed this year, climbing from about 5,000 mentions to almost 15,000 — far more than observed in past years.

AI as a mega force

As a result, BlackRock has named artificial intelligence as one of the "mega forces" shaping the new macroeconomic regime it sees emerging.

In its "2023 Mid-Year Outlook," BlackRock noted that ChatGPT and other consumer-oriented AI tools have turbocharged interest in AI. The firm believes the markets are still assessing the potential effects of these AI applications, which could disrupt entire industries, going beyond sectors and boosting digitalization in the process.

As a result, BlackRock is now considering AI and a few other factors it sees as "powerful, structural forces that transcend the macro backdrop." In fact, the firm feels these "mega forces" are already beginning to drive returns and corporate profits, transcending asset classes as well.

AI disruption

The primary reason artificial intelligence is such a powerful force right is its potential to disrupt entire industries. In fact, some industries are already seeing some level of disruption since the release of ChatGPT. According to BlackRock, the "digital disruption" of multiple sectors and economies "is going mainstream" amid a powerful explosion in computational power and data.

ChatGPT is one major result of that explosion as advances in machine learning makes these new AI tools possible. In fact, some generative AI tools have advanced so much that they're already taking jobs because they're able to do some tasks that previously, only humans could do.

AIs have long been used to analyze massive sets of data, but this year has brought the technology beyond data analysis, sparking euphoria across the markets.

Diving into potential AI beneficiaries

BlackRock thinks the markets are underappreciating the importance of data, both for AI and for any potential winners from the technology. Technology mega-caps have long been stockpiling data on their users, highlighting the value in data, but AI provides new opportunities to use and monetize all that data in a wide variety of different ways.

Suddenly, user data isn't the only valuable form of data. In fact, companies like Twitter whose publicly shared data has been scraped from online sources to feed the growing number of AI models are starting to protest and could even consider ways to bill the companies that created those AIs.

Additionally, semiconductor companies are clear winners in the new battle over AI, which is why big names like NVIDIA (NVDA) and AMD have soared year to date. BlackRock expects additional capital to flow into semiconductor production, especially as the U.S. and other countries offer incentives to boost domestic production.

Long-term implications for AI

For investors, artificial intelligence will have a myriad of long-term implications, so it's important to zero in on the ones that are most important for you. On one hand, a growing number of AI tools could dramatically improve the investing decisions retail investors make.

Suddenly, individual investors will gain access to tools that could be as good as or nearly as good as those long used by professional traders. Such tools could grant retail investors access to copious volumes of investing-related data and easy-to-understand analysis of all that data.

On the other hand, investors will still have their work cut out for them in terms of trying to focus on potential winners from this AI "mega trend." Some obvious winners include chipmakers NVIDIA and AMD and even small-cap names like C3.ai, BigBEar.ai or SoundHound, which are pure-play AI options.

However, there will surely be a plethora of other less-obvious winners in the AI race, and it could take a while before we really see the full picture of what's happening. Thus, this theme is one that investors would do well to continue monitoring for the near future as we begin to see where the biggest disruptions occur and which companies will truly benefit over the long run.