LIVE MARKETS-Signs of AI benefits emerging across Europe Inc

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SIGNS OF AI BENEFITS EMERGING ACROSS EUROPE INC

Investors have spent the past few years listening to companies talk about artificial intelligence. Now some of them are starting to put numbers on the benefits.

A report from Marina Zavolock and colleagues at Morgan Stanley finds that 36% of companies in the MSCI Europe index have quantified some form of AI-related benefits over the last 12 months, up from 21% a year earlier. Those firms make up around half of the index's market cap.

The most frequently cited benefits are productivity gains and financial impacts, with companies reporting everything from faster software development and customer-service improvements to cost savings and revenue benefits.

Banks, technology hardware groups and diversified financial companies are among the sectors most actively reporting measurable returns, according to the report out on Sunday.

For investors, the earnings picture may be the most interesting part. Morgan Stanley identified 59 European companies that have been particularly active in quantifying AI returns. Over the past year, analysts' forecasts for their next-12-month earnings per share increased by 15%, outperforming the benchmark by around four percentage points.

"Early signs of AI adoption ROI emerging for Europe's 'Leading AI Adoption Quantifiers', challenging prevailing market skepticism," the MS strategists write.

Among the stocks on this screen that are also Morgan Stanley Top Picks are Deutsche Telekom DTEGn.DE, Lloyds LLOY.L, ABN Amro ABNd.AS, CaixaBank CABK.MC, UniCredit CRDI.MI and Roche ROPC.S.

(Danilo Masoni)

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