Outperformed by AI: Time to replace your analyst?

SIX artificial intelligence (AI) models recently went head-to-head with seasoned equity analysts to produce Swot (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses, and the results were striking.

In many cases, the AI didn’t just hold its own; it uncovered risks and strategic gaps the human experts missed. This wasn’t theory. My colleagues and I ran a controlled test of leading large language models (LLMs) against analyst consensus on three companies – Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Daiichi Sankyo (Japan), and Kirby Corporation (the US). Each was the most positively rated stock in its region as of February 2025 – the kind of “sure bet” that analysts overwhelmingly endorse.

We deliberately chose market favourites because if AI can identify weaknesses where humans see only strengths, that’s a powerful signal. It suggests that AI has the potential not just to support analyst workflows, but to challenge consensus thinking and possibly change the way investment research gets done.