Cathie Wood believes the convergence of technologies, especially artificial intelligencecreates transformational investment opportunities across several sectors despite current market uncertainty.
During a Webinar will be hosted by UK Investment Platform on Thursday, the Investment Ark CEO and Chief Investment Officer outlined how AI accelerates innovation across healthcare, autonomous driving and software development in the fundamental change of economic growth expectations for the next five years.
According to Wood, “artificial intelligence is the largest catalyst for switching out there,” describing how AI will affect all technology and accelerate innovation across sectors.
The investment strategist highlighted how her company is organized around these technologies rather than traditional sectors, allowing them to identify opportunities that span multiple industries.
AI transforms key areas like autonomous driving, where Wood believes Tesla Inc. (Tsla) Robotaxis will reach a critical safety milestone this year.
“By the end of this year, we believe, thanks to AI, that Robotaxis, or at least Robotaxi Tesla, will be safer than a human driver,” Wood noted, noting that Tesla is approaching the safety threshold of one accident per 700,000 miles currently committed by human drivers.
This safety improvement, along with regulatory changes that wood predicts under the current administration, could accelerate the adoption of autonomous driving technology and transform transportation economics.
“The ultimate price on a scale … when a complete robotaxi network is rated, 25 cents per mile will be compared to the $ 2 to $ 4 that mile” currently charged by rides sharing services, Wood explained.
AI's transformational effect on healthcare was another focus, especially when discovering drugs where companies like Recursion Therapeutics Inc. (Rxrx) Having seen the productivity of a researcher increase ten times in just a year, according to Wood.
“The number of assumptions that a researcher could test in Return Therapeutics has gone from 20 a year to 200 a year,” he said, adding that the drugs to develop drugs could shrink from 13 years to eight years while costs fall from $ 2.4 billion to $ 600 million per drug.
Beyond market volatility in the season, Wood maintains an optimistic forecast with a vision of accelerated economic growth driven by convergent technologies.
“Over the next five years, we would expect the growth rate (GDP) to more than double, based on the convergence of technologies,” predicted Wood, noting the historical precedent of technological advances leading up to a mis-function increase in economic growth.