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5 Stocks to Buy as AI Takes Over Daily Life Activities

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Today artificial intelligence (AI) has moved beyond just science fiction movies and plays a significant role in our everyday lives. From communication to shopping, household help to workspace management and much more, AI streamlines and improves several day-to-day operations. According to analytics insight’s Global Artificial Intelligence Market 2020-2025 report, the global AI market is expected to grow to $252 billion by 2023 from $29 billion in 2019, at a CAGR of 42.5%. The growth in AI is diverse, encompassing sectors like banking and financial services, telecommunication, transportation and logistics, media, retail, manufacturing, healthcare and household applications.

AI Impacting Everyday Lives

With technology improving constantly, AI has a massive market across multiple sectors and has proven its importance in remote working during the pandemic. Apart for helping companies operate during the pandemic by cloud computing, analytical services, online payment, communication, etc., the technology has made inroads into our everyday lives.

Social media now connects millions across the globe. These networks utilize AI to advertise more effectively to users. Marketers can efficiently run massive paid advertisement campaigns on social media, and with AI support, they can make optimum use of money and save on content creation and distribution for each campaign.

Further, Apple Inc.’s (AAPL - Free Report) Siri, Amazon.com, Inc.’s (AMZN - Free Report) Alexa, Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL - Free Report) Google Home and Microsoft Corporation’s (MSFT - Free Report) Cortana are among the top digital assistants that have gained popularity in the past few years. These AI-based digital assistants also offer home automation, allowing one to control house’s thermostat, lights, and other devices along with basic features like message dictation, Internet searches, alarms, scheduling, reminders, calculation and music playbacks.

Additionally, AI is now used by search engines to transform the web searching experience. In fact, AI can find and remove sites that use poor-quality pages. AI-based ranking algorithms help in quality control, which could actually consume several human hours if done manually. AI also finds significant usage in online shopping, from round the clock chatbots to recommendation after your initial purchase.

Robot are being used to ease household errands since the 1990s, from cleaning to entertainment and domestic security, home robots have been in trend for decades now. But with AI in play, these robots can now do much more than anticipated. For instance, the latest iRobot’s Roomba 980 model powered by AI has advanced decision-making capabilities. This robot can scan the entire room and identify obstacles and also create efficient routes and methods.

Funding & Collaborations Boosting the Space

The AI space has received million dollars in funding that boosts research and development. And with more and more companies going public, the future is brighter than we think.

On Nov 13, C3.ai, an AI software startup, filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange and plans to trade under the ticker symbol “AI.” Though this $3.3-billion company has not yet determined the number of shares and price range for the proposed offering, the IPO is one of the most anticipated among other software IPO of this year.

Along with that, other private AI companies are constantly raising funding to compete with giants like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Intel, Google and others. On Nov 9, Nektar.ai, a business-to-business sales productivity startup, raised $2.15 million in seed funding, in a deal led by Nexus Venture Partners, along with significant participation from Insignia Venture Partners, Arka Venture Labs, Better Capital and Vietnam Investments Group.

Additionally, per a CB Insights report, in the first quarter of 2020, nearly 500 AI startups across 42 countries have raised more than $8.4 billion. Despite the coronavirus crisis, this technology space has drastically gained momentum, and several mergers and acquisitions have also helped technology companies expand their AI capabilities.

On Nov 2, Coupa Software reported that it has acquired LLamasoft, an AI-powered supply chain design and planning for approximately $1.5 billion. LLamasoft’s AI-powered cloud platform is used by brands such as Boeing, Danone, Home Depot, and Nestle to make smarter and faster supply chain decisions.

5 Top Choices

AI is becoming more integral part of our daily lives, and with time it will only grow in importance in the coming years. This technology will influence every human decision, from grocery shopping to disease diagnosis and treatment by doctors to recognizing patterns and making predictions. Given such development, we have shortlisted five stocks that can make the most of the AI boom.

The Trade Desk, Inc. (TTD - Free Report) operates a self-service cloud-based platform that allows buyers to create, manage and optimize data-driven digital advertising campaigns. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current quarter is 22.2% compared with the Zacks Internet - Services industry’s projected earnings growth of nearly 7%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company’s current-year earnings has been revised 43.2% upward over the past 60 days. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Google’s parent Alphabet provides online advertising services. Google's search engine is driven by algorithms that automatically generate a response to each query. The company that belongs to Internet – Services has an expected earnings growth rate of 44.6% for the next quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company’s current-year earnings has been revised 14% upward over the past 60 days.

Microsoft develops, licenses, and supports software, services, devices, and solutions. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 17% compared with the Zacks Computer - Software industry’s projected earnings growth of 4.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this Zacks Rank #2 company’s current-year earnings has been revised 5.5% upward over the past 60 days.

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) operates as a visual computing company. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 57.7% compared with the Zacks Semiconductor - General industry’s projected earnings growth of 7.7%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this Zacks Rank #2 company’s current-year earnings has been revised 0.2% upward over the past 60 days.

Teradyne, Inc. (TER - Free Report) designs, develops, manufactures, sells and supports automatic test equipment. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is nearly 57% against the Zacks Electronics - Testing Equipment industry’s projected earnings decline of 10.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this Zacks Rank #2 company’s current-year earnings has been revised 16% upward over the past 60 days.

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