Emily Flippen

But for anybody who can't read it or just hasn't yet, I'm really excited to dig into some of the findings here today on the Motley Fool Money podcast.

And I want to start with what the report says about real-world investors and what they're doing with AI today.

And then we'll move to where, Donato, you think the industry is heading.

And

and then wrap with Asit's framework for investing in AI, including where the opportunities may be the most ripe.

Now, The Motley Fool's 2026 AI Investor Outlook Report did survey around 2,600 American adults in November 2025, and the headline is pretty simple.

Amongst people who already own AI stocks, 36% plan to increase their holdings, 57% plan to keep it the same, and only 7% plan to reduce.

Moreover, a whopping 62% of respondents said they're confident AI-heavy companies will deliver strong long-term returns.

That number grows to 93% amongst those who already have exposure.

The gist of this report is there's still a lot of excitement around AI, even with the hype.

Now, Asit, I know there's always going to be biases in this type of self-reported data.

Those who are most excited about AI are probably also the ones who are most likely to respond to a survey about

for instance.

But when you see that people are largely holding or adding to AI in a world that continues to focus on the fact that we're in a, quote, AI bubble, what does that tell you?

I think that's a fair read, Asit.

One of the things that we don't get from the survey is how much exposure already exists.

We talked to people who say they already have exposure, but in terms of a total portfolio, that exposure could be smaller than what somebody may want to allocate.

The intention to add may just be actually building out what would then be a full-size position to exposure to AI, however that's defined in 2026.

But I also think, and this is maybe the irrational hope of mine, that anybody who answers this survey and says that they're planning on adding or maintaining their AI exposure is doing so with the awareness that I'm going to hold these companies for the extreme long term.

So, yeah, maybe this is a bubble.