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In the near-term, agentic commerce is likely to be evolutionary rather than cause overnight disruption, but the direction of travel is clear. So what needs to be in place for agentic commerce to scale? And where might the advance of agentic commerce challenge or upend the status quo?
À court terme, le commerce agentique devrait connaître une évolution progressive sans causer de ruptures radicales, mais ses perspectives à long terme sont claires. Quelles seront les conditions d’un déploiement généralisé du commerce agentique ? Et comment son essor pourrait-il bousculer le statu quo actuel, voire révolutionner les achats en ligne ?
Historiquement, les périodes de sous‑performance du facteur qualité ont été suivies d’un rebond relatif significatif des actions de qualité, ce qui renforce notre conviction que la qualité représente aujourd’hui l’une des meilleures opportunités sur les marchés.
Dans notre article « Quand chaque entreprise de données ressemble à une cible », nous avons évalué l’impact de l’IA avancée sur le secteur des services d’information financière. Ce mois-ci, nous nous intéressons aux segments de niche de grande qualité du secteur industriel et prenons en exemple nos participations dans les services professionnels. Selon notre analyse, ces entreprises aux profils très différents devraient encore bénéficier de barrières à l’entrée élevées et, bien souvent, se sont déjà lancées dans l’aventure de l’IA avancée.
At the time of writing, the sell-off in financial information companies has been swift and indiscriminate, reflecting a growing fear that Advanced AI could erode these companies’ competitive advantages. We believe financial information services are not easily replicated, with moats built on several interlocking defences including data ownership, the ecosystem effect and their integration into client workflows. Advanced AI, rather than undermining incumbents, may ultimately strengthen them.
Despite the improvement in the environment since early April, the current euphoric atmosphere, with stretched valuations and record retail inflows, seems tough to justify given the modest growth outlook and multiple sources of uncertainty. As Bruno Paulson explains, we see a sharp disconnect between the state of the markets and the state of the real world.
Fundamental equity investing is the art of dealing in uncertainty. It involves forming a view on the earnings trajectory of a company, analysing its prospects for growth, understanding the strength of its competitive moats, and assessing potential risks to the sustainability of its returns – whether self-inflicted or external. It is an art rather than a precise science; only some of these risks can be quantified with others firmly in the Knightian uncertainty camp.
In mature and well penetrated industries like consumer staples, achieving growth and maintaining pricing power requires a steady pipeline of innovations that address consumer needs, supported by sustained marketing investment and best-in-class execution. In this piece we look at the consumer staples companies we hold that demonstrate sustained innovation.
With tariffs potentially a headwind for growth and earnings, the International Equity Team explain why being in the “not owning” bucket may continue to be a positive.
