The writer is a former global head of research at Morgan Stanley and former group head of research, data and analytics at UBS
The late Byron Wien, a prominent markets strategist of the 1990s, defined the best research as a non-consensus recommendation that turned out to be right. Could AI pass Wien’s test of worthwhile research and make the analyst job redundant? Or at the very least increase the probability of a recommendation to be right more than 50 per cent of the time?
Well, it is important to understand that most analyst reports are devoted to the interpretation of financial statements and news. This is about facilitating the job of investors. Here, modern large language models simplify or displace this analyst function.