Your Money

ChatGPT helps investors see through ‘bloated’ corporate fluff

Study says conference call ‘noise’ can make it tougher to identify companies with good or bad news

Analysts are increasingly using Chat GPT to transcribe and summarise earnings calls. Photograph: iStock
Analysts are increasingly using Chat GPT to transcribe and summarise earnings calls. Photograph: iStock
Proinsias O'Mahony
Tue Jun 11 2024 - 05:00

ChatGPT is making it trickier for companies to fool investors. Analysts are increasingly using the app to transcribe and summarise earnings calls, says Liberum strategist and blogger Joachim Klement. That is wise, he says, citing a study which used ChatGPT to summarise thousands of conference calls and annual reports.

It found the length of calls or discussions could be comfortably shortened by up to 75 per cent.

“Bloated disclosures”, the report concluded, can blind investors to what is really going on, but AI-generated summaries “cut through the clutter” and make it easier to identify companies with good or bad news. Or, as Klement puts it, ChatGPT and other AI systems can help “normal analysts and investors get rid of the noise and not get swayed by charming CEOs”.

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Proinsias O'Mahony

Proinsias O'Mahony

Proinsias O’Mahony, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes the weekly Stocktake column