Emily Flippen

Or is Wall Street still early to the party?

It's almost ironic that we talk about AI as a bubble today, when I think the skepticism around AI is probably the highest it's ever been.

Unlike bubbles in the past, I think we as investors have a new level of awareness of things like the hype cycle.

To your point, when things get separate,

When hype separates from reality, that's when it creates a bubble.

But to your point, there is reality backing up a lot of this technology.

And I love the fact that the survey shows that investors are still largely leaning in to the AI and adoption, but there's still that awareness, that cautious amount of optimism.

Up next, we're going to be getting practical about 2026, including where the next wave of opportunities may show up.

Stick with us.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money.

Today, we're discussing the AI Investor Outlook Report for 2026 and where AI technology may be headed.

Donata, as head of AI here at The Fool, I'd love to dig in a little bit deeper to where you see AI going.

Now, you said in this report that

the right mental model is somewhere like three to five years in terms of the timeframe for investors in the sector.

That investor shouldn't get too caught up in things like the present-day cost of LLMs since the intelligence per dollar ratio for models has been doubling roughly every six months.

That goes over my head.

When I hear that coming out of your mouth, can you provide some more context as to what exactly that means and if AI capabilities keep improving at that same pace, where you expect value to accrue in the year ahead?

It's really easy for investors to forget about that cost curve, how quickly it can change.

We saw it change over the past two years.

You can think about how different it'll be in 2028.