Earnings calls citing ‘AI’ surge in 2025 as ‘uncertainty’ mentions fade

FactSet examined conference call transcripts for all S&P 500 companies that held earnings calls from September 15 to December 4 and found that the term “AI” was cited in 306 calls. This is the highest number of S&P 500 earnings calls in which “AI” was cited over the past 10 years; The previous record was 292 in the second quarter of 2025, according to John Butters, vice president and chief earnings analyst at FactSet. In addition, the number of 306 is well above the five-year average of 136 and the ten-year average of 86.

At the sector level, the Information Technology (95%) and Communications Services (95%) sectors had the highest percentages of earnings calls mentioning “AI” for the third quarter.

Additionally, S&P 500 companies that cited “AI” in third-quarter earnings calls saw higher average prices than those that did not — since December 31, 2024 (13.9% vs. 5.7%), June 30, 2025 (8.1% vs. 3.9%), and September 30, 2025 (1.0% vs. 0.3%).

Navigating uncertainty

Besides AI, another term that piqued my curiosity was “uncertainty,” so I asked Butters what he thought. He analyzed S&P 500 earnings calls (for each quarter) in which the term “uncertainty” was cited at least once, going back to 2020. He found that, similar to the pattern seen with “tariff” citations, mentions of “uncertainty” rose in the first quarter of 2025 but declined significantly over the next two quarters. In the first quarter of 2025, there were 415 references to “uncertainty,” compared to 282 in the second quarter and 201 in the third quarter.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” earlier this year, there has been a great deal of uncertainty about the new administration’s economic and geopolitical agenda, Yuval Atzmon, McKinsey’s chief financial officer, told me recently. At the height of uncertainty, Atzmon explained, his focus as CFO was on identifying actions that would be beneficial in which scenario. “The worst thing is inaction,” he added. Acting on what you can control builds resilience, he said.

Operating in a state of uncertainty appears to have become a constant, which may help explain why explicit mentions of the term during earnings calls have diminished. While uncertainty often drives defensive moves, Atzmon stressed the importance of reconsidering long-term strategies and seizing competitive opportunities.

Global spending on artificial intelligence is expected to rise in 2026, and “AI” is likely to remain the top term on fourth-quarter earnings calls in January as companies discuss investment, margins, capital expenditures and productivity.

CherylEstrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboards

Neil Berkeley Promoted to CFO of Alector, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALEC), a clinical-stage biotechnology company. Berkley has served as Alector’s Chief Business Officer (CBO) since March 2024, and interim Chairman and CFO since June 2025. He is a biotechnology executive with more than two decades of experience leading corporate strategy, finance, business development and operations across early- and late-stage companies.

Caleb Noel Executive Vice President and CFO of NFP, an Aon Company, property and casualty broker and benefits advisor has been promoted. Noel has served in numerous corporate finance and operational roles during his 23-year career with NFP, most recently as Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations. He previously served as Vice President of Finance at Scottish Holdings, a division of Scottish Re, and as an analyst in the investment banking division of Prudential Securities (now Wells Fargo & Company).

Big deal

CFOs are focused on the long term when it comes to AI, according to research by RGP, a global professional services firm. The report, titled “The AI ​​Foundation Gap: From Ambition to Readiness,” describes a financial landscape that is accelerating toward an AI-powered future but constrained by issues such as fragile data foundations.

Although 66% of CFOs surveyed expect a significant return on AI investment within two years, only 14% of them report meaningful value today. Top barriers to AI ROI include trust in data, legacy systems, governance gaps, and skills shortages, according to the report. However, optimism persists despite deep structural barriers, from data trust issues (only 10% fully trust an organization’s data) to technical debt (86% say legacy systems limit AI readiness) and skills shortages that threaten to slow AI adoption.

The findings are based on the insights of 200 U.S. CFOs at companies with annual revenues exceeding $10 billion. Sectors include technology, healthcare, financial services, and consumer packaged goods/retail.

Go deeper

A new episode of “This week in the worksWharton’s podcast focuses on artificial intelligence and technological evolution. Lynn Wu, assistant professor of operations, information and decisions at Wharton, examines the emergence of transformative technologies and technology bubble cycles throughout history. Wu discusses where AI fits into these cycles, describing it as a necessary stage of technological evolution that lays the foundation for transformative progress across industries.

I heard

“Ultimately, consumers will win if courts and enforcers act on the evidence.”

Satya Marar, research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, writes in A luck Opinion article titled “Netflix, Warner, Paramount and Antitrust: Outcomes of Mega Entertainment Deals Should Follow Evidence, Not Politics or Fear of Integration.” Marrar specializes in competition, innovation and governance, and is an Artificial Intelligence and Antitrust Fellow at the Innovators Network.