Making sense of market moves
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If you feel unsettled by the image of your cat driving a Cybertruck that your 12-year-old nephew created with Midjourney, just think about how freaked out decades-old corporations are by all the nascent tech out there.
That’s probably why some legacy companies are teaming up to weather the AI revolution storm. Just this week, Getty Images announced it was merging with former rival Shutterstock to create a new $3.7 billion stock-image behemoth to cut costs and beat out competitors—such as Midjourney itself.
Investors seem to think the two photo giants will make a picture-perfect couple: Shutterstock is up TK% since the news, while Getty has risen TK% since the deal was announced.
Every company is an AI company now
Shutterstock and Getty aren’t the only companies looking for ways to prevent themselves from becoming obsolete as more and more industries implement AI technology.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, that giant information bible your third-grade English teacher plopped onto your desk, is seeking a whopping $1 billion in an IPO planned for this summer. The 250-year old-publisher has shifted away from print over recent years, and toward AI-learning tools, specifically with its subsidiaries Melingo AI and Britannica Education.
But just because a company can embrace AI, should it? Industries like healthcare, cybersecurity, and financial services have more obvious uses for automation upgrades. But even sectors like manufacturing are leveraging machine learning to cut costs and streamline logistics.
Experts emphasize that we’re still in the early innings of AI adoption, and that there might be use cases that surprise us, as well as some hyped-up applications that don’t end up panning out. Only time will tell which is which.—LB