Artificial Intelligence

Exploring key themes to demystify the world of AI.

AI is an expansive topic evolving at an unfathomable pace, making it a focus of boardroom discussions. As companies evaluate the potential impact of AI across their respective businesses, we bring forth new topics of discussion in the field of AI to help empower financial minds.

Focus On Demystifying AI

Our Focus On Demystifying AI series produced by Scotiabank Equity Research, helps demystify the increasingly complex world of AI for our stakeholders - investors, corporations, and policymakers - through reports and webcasts with industry experts. The team brings expertise across various fields of AI with a focus on key areas including IT Services and Client Experience, data, and industry-specific AI trends.

Below is a high-level summary of recent AI research reports for institutional investors. To access the full reports, log in to the Global Equity Portal or contact Scotiabank Equity Research.

Equity Research Analysts

Divya Goyal

Director, Equity Research, Scotiabank 

Patrick Colville

Director, Equity Research Analyst, U.S. Software

Kevin Krishnaratne

Director, Equity Research Analyst, Software & Services

Nick Altmann

Director, Equity Research, Scotiabank

Research Reports

February 2024
Generative AI Is Electrifying Search Demand – Initiating Coverage on Elastic NV with an SO Rating

In this report

  • Generative AI-powered search is driving an explosion of interest in the search market
  • Initiated coverage on Elastic NV a likely beneficiary of generative AI-powered search

Summary

In this edition of our Focus On Demystifying AI series, we touch on what we view as an emerging early-stage use case of generative AI in the enterprise: search. Our research suggests natural language search is a highly compelling starting point for generative AI adoption and is driving an explosion of interest in this market.

January 2024
First and Second Derivative Impacts of AI on Data Centers and Power Demand

In this report

  • AI is set to increase data center demand and, in turn, power demand
  • Which companies will likely benefit most from AI-driven data center and power demand trends

Summary
In this edition, we take an in-depth look at the impact of AI on data centers and power demand. At first glance, and despite the AI craze in recent months, the link between AI and the utilities sector may seem unclear. Yet, AI is having a broad effect on the world, and utilities are no exception. We argue that as AI applications evolve and become more sophisticated, the demand for computational power will increase, which will lead to increased demand for data centers worldwide and, in turn, fuel power demand.

October 2023
Initiating Coverage on MongoDB, Inc.: Where the Puck Is Going, but a Little Too Early?

In this report

  • Investment summary
  • AI adoption is a long-term benefit to database spend

Summary
In this initiation of coverage report on MongoDB, Inc., we explore a key area of the AI transformation: the importance of data and the growing area of nonrelational databases. AI is set to absolutely rock our world, with data being the lifeblood of AI and database being the technological underlay. We argue that AI adoption will be a long-term benefit to database spend. Enterprises are developing new applications faster than ever, with data becoming increasingly important and scalability no longer limiting database sizes, and these trends will likely be supercharged by AI.

October 2023
Artificial Intelligence: An Enigma vs. Reality

In this report

  • The role of AI in the customer experience journey
  • The evolution of industries with the advent of AI

Summary
This report will explore the impact of AI on industries and businesses from a customer engagement standpoint, as we believe the Customer Experience segment will likely be one of the most disrupted by AI given the scope of automation in the business. We think it will be select customer-facing industries – Restaurants and Retail, Banking and Financial Services, Media and Entertainment, Transportation, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Telecommunications, Automotive, and Education – that will see imminent advancements in AI investments. Our discussions are informed by the AI-led business demand seen by Technology Services companies across our coverage, especially the customer experience and digital experience companies.