Goldman: banks and traditional companies will be the beneficiaries of the next phase of the AI boom
All of the companies in Goldman's sample have high employee costs and are already implementing AI to improve productivity
Goldman Sachs has responded to investors looking for non-obvious ideas in the US stock market to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. The investment bank suggested paying attention to stocks in sectors that are considered traditional, but which can benefit from the introduction of new technologies no less than technology giants.
Goldman Sachs analyst Ryan Hammond, in a note to clients, identified companies that could be beneficiaries in the next phase of the AI boom through increased corporate efficiency. His sample included issuers in the Russell 1000 index with a high share of personnel costs, which at confabulations at the end of the last two quarters mentioned artificial intelligence in the context of increasing their productivity, CNBC reports.
Goldman Sachs' basket of "beneficiaries of AI productivity" has delivered a 16% return since December 2023, while the equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 index (all companies are equally weighted, regardless of capitalization) has returned 23%, the bank's analyst calculated. In his opinion, it is this lag between quotations and the trajectory of actual profit growth that creates an attractive risk/return ratio for investors wishing to go beyond investing solely in AI infrastructure.
Banks
Goldman Sachs has named Bank of America, KeyCorp, PNC Financial Services and Affirm as potential beneficiaries of the next phase of AI in the financial sector - these companies could optimize more than a third of their payroll costs using AI. BofA plans to invest $4 billion in new technologies to improve employee efficiency. According to Reuters, 18,000 developers at BofA have been using chatbots for routine tasks over the past year and have seen a significant increase in productivity.
Other companies
In addition to the financial sector, Goldman Sachs remains optimistic about IBM, noting the company's success in improving efficiency through AI. In May 2025, The Wall Street Journal wrote that the company had replaced several hundred HR department employees with AI agents and used the savings to hire programmers and salespeople.
The list of promising securities also includes Zillow Group, which operates an online platform for real estate transactions in the United States. Although the company's shares have fallen more than 7% since the beginning of 2025, Goldman Sachs sees high earnings growth potential for the company. In October, Zillow Group announced Zillow Pro, an AI-powered suite of tools for realtors.
What Wall Street thinks about this stock
Wall Street as a whole shares Goldman Sachs' bet: according to FactSet, the consensus rating for all six companies in the sample is "above market" (Overweight, corresponding to a buy recommendation). Analysts see the greatest potential in Affirm shares: the consensus suggests an increase from the current $65.35 to $95.36, i.e. by 46%. Average growth estimates for Zillow Group, PNC Financial Services, KeyCorp and BofA are more modest, but also double-digit - from 13% for BofA to 29% for Zillow. In the market's opinion, the only stock that has already exhausted its potential looks like IBM: its shares closed slightly above the average target on November 19.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
