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Is AI the latest ‘holy grail’ in investing?

As its use spreads, it may improve the investment process without delivering a durable edge

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    • The problem is not whether AI can find predictive signals. It is whether those signals remain valuable once others can find them too.
    • The problem is not whether AI can find predictive signals. It is whether those signals remain valuable once others can find them too. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT

    Hou Wey Fook

    Published Tue, Sep 8, 2026 · 04:43 PM

    OVER the past four decades, I have seen investors chase successive “holy grails”, from portfolio insurance in the 1980s and risk parity in the 1990s, to smart beta in the 2000s.

    None repealed the fundamental trade-off between risk and return.

    Today, artificial intelligence-driven investing is touted as the next holy grail. It would be easy to dismiss this as another turn of the same cycle, but that would be premature.

    Artificial Intelligence

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