The threat to software-backed businesses from artificial intelligence should prompt investors to shift focus from technology to companies that toil in the physical world, like miners, power producers and industrial firms, according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities and chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS Wealth Management.
Her firm is embarking on morphing portfolios from targeting “bits to atoms,” she said on the sidelines of a financial industry conference in Miami Beach on Tuesday. That means buying shares of equipment makers, power generators and resources miners — companies that build the physical infrastructure necessary to drive the modern economy.