“Don’t resist the unfamiliar”: Andrew Posen on how IROs can keep pace with buyers’ use of artificial intelligence

In 2024, one new technology dominated the news headlines: the growing importance of AI in everyone’s lives, not just IROs. Upcoming IR Magazine Forum – AI and Technology the focus is on how IROs can follow in the footsteps of investors, management teams and corporate communications that are adopting innovative technologies, machine learning and generative artificial intelligence to support day-to-day decision making.

The event, which will take place on December 3 in New York, will provide public company IR teams with a blueprint for the responsible use of artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies to strengthen their IR programs.

Ahead of the forum, IR Magazine sat down with Andrew Posen, Vice President and Head of Investor Relations at WOW! Internet, Cable TV and Telephone,” who will speak on a panel examining how consumers are using the technology.

You will be speaking on a panel entitled “Keeping Up with Customers: Challenges and Opportunities for IROs” at the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Forum. What aspects of this topic would you like to explore?

I’m really looking forward to this event because I think AI is becoming an extremely important tool for investors, but is at a very early stage in its development, especially in investor relations. From my position as Head of Communications, one of the first things I saw was concepts of how AI could be used to support my role.

For example, it appears that most AI products are still in beta or are tools that buy-side investors have just begun to gain access to, including those that aggregate and analyze alternative data sources more efficiently and effectively. In this sense, investors can use AI to gain more information about how a business is performing by analyzing alternative market data. Understanding these tools and the benefits that data investors can leverage will be critical for IR and management teams that want to stay ahead of the curve.

Given that we are just beginning to embrace this new technology, I am especially interested in understanding how other IROs are using AI, thinking about AI, and listening to their thoughts on its potential. So far, the tools I’ve seen are aimed at improving the efficiency of tasks and core processes in our day-to-day functions, including summarizing transcripts, evaluating questions and answers, and collecting data to improve our analytical approach and further understand trends in our business. industry and market. From this perspective, I want to hear from my colleagues how they are taking AI to the next level, not just as an efficiency tool, but potentially as a new way of approaching investor relations. I’m also excited to hear some really crazy ideas that push the boundaries so we can expect the unexpected from AI.

Can you tell us about your experience implementing AI in your work and some of the things you’re looking forward to hearing about at the event?

Today I’m just starting to play with the AI ​​to get to know it better. Specifically, I use AI to summarize competitors’ earnings calls and Q&As to assess trends and topics, as well as gain insight into how my peers are addressing common issues. I like to develop a baseline or framework for understanding how technology fits into my role and then see where it takes me.

With that in mind, I’m looking forward to the workshops and demos on the forum because I have a lot to learn about the opportunities that AI is starting to provide. I also think it would be great to hear from other IROs on how they are using this technology and where they think it could go.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced in your profession so far and what do you think is the next big challenge on the horizon?

Without a doubt, the biggest challenge I faced in the IR space occurred at Morgan Stanley during the 2008 financial crisis. I believe the role of the IRO changed fundamentally because everyone found it difficult to understand the extremely complex financials and market dynamics of the time. designed for both companies and investors. It has become more clear than ever that investors and investor relations teams have the same goals and must work together in the interests of transparency and expectations about the direction in which financial markets are heading.

Understanding that shared interest has given me a much deeper understanding of the buy side and today motivates me to work hard to find additional data that will help investors better know and understand my business, strategy and the challenges we face in our execution of that strategy . AI is the next opportunity that I believe we should all be working on to better understand and then leverage within our overall interactions, both internally within our leadership and externally, on both the buyer and seller sides .

If you had to give one piece of advice to your forum audience, what would it be?

This is advice that I find hard to follow all the time: don’t resist things that are still completely unfamiliar. At each stage of my career, I moved into a field in which I had little experience or experience, but plunged into it with the same level of enthusiasm. Knowing that these challenges present exciting opportunities, especially since we don’t fully understand where technology will take us, is why I’m looking forward to this AI event.