{"id":414730,"date":"2026-02-08T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/414730\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:37:10","slug":"not-sure-what-to-think-about-ai-check-out-these-ftse-250-gems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/414730\/","title":{"rendered":"Not sure what to think about AI? Check out these FTSE 250 gems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Image source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

For UK investors unsure about what to make of artificial intelligence (AI), the FTSE 250 is worth a look. There are a lot of businesses there that I think might be well-protected from AI disruption.<\/p>\n

There are good reasons to be uncertain about AI winners and losers. But investors in general should consider adding some diversification to their portfolios, rather than just taking a side.<\/p>\n

AI outcomes<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sceptical of anyone who claims to know with certainty what AI is going to mean for businesses over the long term<\/a>. Moving share prices might present opportunities, but there\u2019s inevitably risk.<\/p>\n

One example that stands out to me is Experian (LSE:EXPN<\/a>). The FTSE 100 company makes money by selling credit scores to lenders that helps them assess potential borrowers.<\/p>\n

The risk is that AI might be able to allow banks to run their own assessments. That would significantly reduce their dependence on Experian and limit its ability to increase prices.<\/p>\n

This, however, wouldn\u2019t be entirely straightforward. Experian has a huge database that is virtually impossible for a newcomer to replicate and this should make its outputs more accurate and reliable.<\/p>\n

The question, though, is whether lenders will care. For something like a mortgage, the risk is huge, but that\u2019s only a small part of the business and the risk is much lower with payday loans or credit cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the stock down 36% in the last 12 months, I think it might be worth considering. But there\u2019s a lot of uncertainty that investors need to be prepared to cope with going forward.<\/p>\n

Away from AI<\/p>\n

A bit further away from the cutting edge of AI, there are some interesting businesses in the FTSE 250. Two that stand out to me are Greggs and JD Wetherspoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Importantly, both companies have strengths that give them unique advantages over competitors. If a business doesn\u2019t have this, it\u2019s hard to see it as a good long-term investment opportunity.<\/p>\n

Both companies use their massive scale to generate cost advantages. And rather than using these to boost their own margins<\/a>, they use them to keep prices down for customers.<\/p>\n

That makes them a nightmare for competitors. It\u2019s virtually impossible to make any money by selling sausage rolls for less than Greggs or pints for less than JD Wetherspoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Could this be disrupted by AI? Maybe \u2013 if it results in significant job losses, consumers might have to pull back their spending and this could cause demand to fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My sense, though, is that value choices are ones that people might find themselves trading down to. And I don\u2019t think anything has an appeal that\u2019s as durable as offering customers low prices.<\/p>\n

What to invest in?<\/p>\n

AI has been the stock market\u2019s main theme recently \u2013 and with good reason. But investors don\u2019t have to get involved in every emerging opportunity, especially when they\u2019re hard to assess.<\/p>\n

There are lots of quality businesses that are much more straightforward. And that simplicity doesn\u2019t have to come at the expense of quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So the question for investors is why not take a look at the likes of Greggs and JD Wetherspoon? Whatever happens with ChatGPT, my guess is they\u2019re going to be around for a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image source: Getty Images For UK investors unsure about what to make of artificial intelligence (AI), the FTSE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-414730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}