AI safety debates. Warnings about human extinction. The first Fed rate hike in three years. The return of market volatility.
It has been a super-busy week for investors. And, frankly, for me personally, trying to decode all of this stuff on three hours of sleep a day.
So I am using this Sunday as a mental reset day to think deeply about some of the things fascinating folks have told me in various venues.
Here are some insights from a week of interesting chats with a who’s who in business.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on AI’s impact
This was one of the most well-received annual Dreamforce events in years for Marc Benioff and the Salesforce (CRM) team. Wall Street came away thinking that, at long last, Salesforce is on a path to better monetize AI — and the stock price could soon follow.
To that end, this comment from Benioff on Opening Bid left an impression:
“I can just tell you that our operating unit leaders [and] the way that they run and operate their businesses at Salesforce have radically changed in the last 90 days that we’ve rolled out this [new AI] technology. And customers are not going to have to wait years for the value. It happens almost instantaneously. And it’s pretty awesome.”
Oscar Health CEO Mark Bertolini on healthcare’s future
Mark Bertolini knows the health insurance market, having led Aetna for many years. He is now several years into his tenure as CEO of Oscar Health (OSCR) and is fresh off a strong investor day. It’s worth your time to go back and read the transcript from the event. It’s interesting stuff.
Bertolini predicts big changes coming to healthcare as companies aim to cut costs:
“I don’t think they’ll [employers] eliminate healthcare. What they’ll do is provide another alternative. And, you know, back in the early 1980s, we did this defined contribution model on pensions. And what we’re calling for now is having employers, instead of getting involved in the selection and the risk of healthcare, say to their employees, ‘Here’s your amount for healthcare purchasing. We want you to go out and buy what you need, buy your network, buy the plan design that works for you in your current station in life. And if you can do that, you can keep it forever,’ which is really what the original promise of Obamacare was back in 2013. And so we think this model is coming. We already see it in small groups under 100 employees and in the middle market, between 100 and 1,000. But 94% of all employers and 72% of very large employers are now considering this as an alternative to their current offerings for healthcare.”
