Artificial intelligence isn’t just a hot topic in Hollywood.
While the robot horror movie “M3gan” racked up millions at the box office this season, the ETF industry saw an opportunity in the controversial technology.
According to ROBO Global CIO William Studebaker, the economic benefits can be staggering.
“You’re going to see a tsunami effect in terms of prices going down because of the deflationary pressure from the technology,” he told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” Wednesday. “It’s in industrial manufacturing, health care, AG [agriculture]security and surveillance … and so on.”
Studebaker manages the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index ETF, which is up 12% year to date. The exchange-traded fund’s holdings include IPG Photonic, Zebra Technologies, Rockwell Automation and Teradyne.
“I have high confidence that this will be very additive to our economy globally, and importantly, it will only generate new growth,” he said.
Rise of robots and projects
There is widespread concern that AI will harm jobs. But Studebaker insists the risk is overblown.
“If you look at the companies and countries that have the highest utilization of automation – Guess what? They have the lowest unemployment rates,” he said.
The International Federation of Robotics reported a milestone last year. Found a record number of robots installed in one year, which is a 22% increase from the pre-pandemic record in 2018.
Studebaker suggests the robot boom is still in its early stages.
“If you think about the number of data scientists and people trained in AI globally, it’s a de minimis number,” Studebaker said. “[The AI surge is] it will take a long time for this to happen.”