Ackman Says AI Dramatically Increases Disruption Risk, Investors Must Reassess Moats

Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, said artificial intelligence has dramatically increased the risk of disruption to industries, forcing investors to reconsider how durable their portfolio companies' moats really are. Speaking on The Knowledge Podcast, he explained that he evaluates investments by asking whether he would still want to own a business if the stock market were closed for a decade. He stressed the importance of focusing on the revenue a company generates and projecting how that business might look in 10 or 20 years.

Ackman acknowledged that Pershing Square already uses AI for investment research. He also highlighted medical advances enabled by AI and said the technology creates opportunities to build companies that were previously impossible, potentially allowing people who have not been entrepreneurs to become founders. He called the pace of progress faster than anything he had seen before.

During the conversation, Ackman mentioned Meta's recently launched Muse AI agent. He said colleagues at Pershing Square have used it and praised how easily it allows users to create agents, although he has not tried it himself. He also cited Brookfield, a company focused on physical infrastructure, as 'undoubtedly a winner' in the AI space.