Results are in
AI loomed large over this earning season, as disruption fears smashed global software names but left Australia’s market looking oddly sheltered by its lack of exposure.
It began with the bluest of blue-chip companies extolling the virtues of AI. It ended with the nation’s most iconic company distancing itself from it.
Another February corporate earnings season is (just about) in the books and, once again, the common thread was artificial intelligence. As Jack Derwin reported back at the start of the month, banking behemoth Commonwealth Bank’s investor slide deck included 65 mentions of the technology of the moment.
By contrast, as Hugo Mathers reported today, Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson largely steered clear of it.
Capital Brief will have a full wrap of results season in the coming days but, as Macquarie strategists wrote in their mid-season update, “the AI disruption genie is already out of the bottle” and everyone has had to come to grips with it.
