AI Isn’t Ready to Take Fund Manager Jobs Yet
Strategies based on artificial intelligence have underperformed as swings in investor sentiment have befuddled machines as well as humans this year.
Photographer: Ben Torres/Bloomberg
How good is artificial intelligence at managing money? To judge by the recent performance of some AI-driven strategies, it doesn’t look like the robots are going to take over from the humans anytime soon.
In August 2018, a quantitative team at Aberdeen Standard Investments started a $10 million Artificial Intelligence Global Equity Fund, betting that an algorithm can be more effective at figuring out the complex world of factor investing than a human portfolio manager. A year later, the fund had underperformed the broader stock market’s powerful rally, and its assets had grown only 8%. Institutional investors say they’ll hold off committing money until they see a longer track record.