Source – investors.com
Whhile much has been written about information technology companies investing in artificial intelligence, Loup Ventures managing partner Doug Clinton notes that many non-tech companies are capitalizing on AI technology as well.
Clinton has put together a portfolio of 17 publicly traded non-tech companies that are making investments in AI to improve their businesses. In a recent blog post, Clinton notes that he assembled the portfolio as a “fun exercise” and a way to draw attention to the sweeping nature of AI advancements. Loup Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm.
Clinton selected the companies from a range of industries including health care, retail, logistics, professional services, finance, transportation, energy, construction and food/agriculture.
“In 10 years, every company will have to be an artificial intelligence company or they won’t be competitive,” Clinton said.
Among the companies included is IBD 50 stock Idexx Laboratories (IDXX). Idexx makes products for the animal health-care sector. On its last earnings call, the company said that its latest diagnostic products are using machine learning so the instruments always have the ability to learn and train on new data. One such product that leverages AI is its SediVue Dx analyzer, Clinton said.
The other companies on the Loup Ventures list are: Accenture (ACN), Avis Budget Group (CAR), Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Deere (DE), Domino’s Pizza (DPZ), FedEx (FDX) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
There’s also Halliburton (HAL), Interpublic Group (IPG), Macy’s (M), Monsanto (MON), Nasdaq(NDAQ), Northern Trust (NTRS), Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) and Under Armour (UA).
Among those venturing into the space, Clinton says:
- Macy’s and UnderArmour are using IBM‘s (IBM) Watson AI technology to improve their business processes.
- Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is leveraging AI and machine learning to reduce the amount of time it takes to research and bring new drugs to market. GSK recently signed a $43 million deal with Exscientia, a Scotland-based startup that helps automated drug design.
- Package delivery company FedEx is making investments in AI, robotics and self-driving vehicles.
- Avis recently announced a deal with Waymo, Alphabet‘s (GOOGL) self-driving car project, to maintain, store and deploy its fleet of 600 self-driving minivans in the Phoenix area.
- Boeing revealed plans at the Paris Air Show last month to begin testing fully autonomous commercial jets.
- And Domino’s has been investing in multiple technologies to improve its business, including testing pizza-delivery robots.