273: AI Beyond Tech: How Artificial Intelligence Is…

PodcastThe BidJay JacobsOct 2

Jay Jacobs describes AI adoption as broadening beyond technology companies into health care and legal services, though survey results suggest business returns remain uneven. He points to a major infrastructure buildout—with data center power needs potentially reaching about 121 gigawatts by decade’s end—and warns that physical constraints, including power, metals, and indium supply, may slow deployment. He also sees AI investment extending into physical applications and, later, new businesses as adoption spreads across the economy.

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Key Takeaways

Jay Jacobs says roughly one-quarter to one-third of companies have meaningfully adopted AI, with health care and legal services joining technology as adopters, but adoption has not guaranteed returns: about 40% of companies investing heavily in AI reported no impact or a negative impact, while 60% saw positive gains.

Jacobs says AI could improve health care through both specialized pharmaceutical work—such as mapping proteins and assessing compounds—and hospital operations, including staffing and bed planning. He says these applications might make costly, time-consuming work faster and more economical and help hospital systems operate more efficiently.

Jacobs estimates data centers might need about 121 gigawatts of power by the end of the decade, with each gigawatt representing $40 billion to $50 billion in investment; spending on chips, power generation, and distribution could reach the trillions. He says deployment may be constrained by the pace of building data centers, bringing power online, extracting metals, and securing indium, which is needed for fiber optics and is largely a byproduct of geographically concentrated zinc mining.

TECHNOLOGY

Broad Adoption — Jay Jacobs says surveys indicate roughly one-quarter to one-third of companies have meaningfully adopted AI. Technology companies lead adoption today, but health care companies and law firms are also using it, making AI a broader economic theme.

“So if you look across the economy, and there's different surveys of this, but anywhere from a quarter to a third of companies have really started to see meaningful adoption…”—

Uneven Returns — Jay Jacobs cites a survey in which about 40% of companies investing heavily in AI reported no impact or a negative business impact; the other 60% saw gains. The results suggest that heavy AI investment does not guarantee business value.

“There was a great survey that showed that about 40% of companies that are investing heavily in artificial intelligence have had basically none to actually negative impact on their business…”—

Drug Development — Jacobs says AI could support pharmaceutical work by mapping proteins, assessing how compounds interact with them, and creating AI representations of lab tests. These applications might make expensive, time-consuming work faster and more economical.

“One is you could look at the pharmaceutical space, and you could think about mapping different proteins, trying to understand how different compounds would interact with those proteins, doing things…”—

MARKETS

Indium Bottleneck — Jacobs says larger data centers need fiber optics to move data quickly, and fiber optics require indium. Because indium is largely a byproduct of zinc mining and production is geographically concentrated, it could become a choke point for AI infrastructure.

“You have to use things like fiber optics to move data around the data center really quickly, and so therefore you need indium…”—

AI Economy Broadens

Jacobs says AI has moved beyond technology companies into sectors such as health care, finance, and consumer products, making it a broad economic theme.

Adoption And Business Returns

Survey results show adoption spreading, including in health care and law, but returns are uneven; companies are more likely to benefit when they resource AI around a specific business plan.

AI In Chips And Hospitals

A potato-chip maker used production-line data and a digital twin to improve manufacturing, while health care applications range from drug research to hospital operations and clinical documentation.

AI Physical Constraints

Jacobs describes data-center power demand reaching roughly 121 gigawatts by decade’s end and highlights copper and indium as materials that could constrain the buildout.

Power And Indium Supply

The scale of power and materials needed for data centers could drive trillions in investment, while indium’s byproduct economics and concentrated production create a potential supply bottleneck.

AI Meets The Physical World

Because physical infrastructure cannot expand as quickly as digital demand, companies are exploring options such as space-based data centers, while AI also raises questions for defense.

Robots And Autonomous Vehicles

Jacobs says autonomous vehicles and industrial humanoid robots are already in use, and expects AI adoption to continue moving from digital services into physical applications.

AI Investment Beyond Tech

Broader AI exposure across builders and adopters gives investors and active managers more opportunities and may help diversify portfolios concentrated in technology stocks.

AI's Next Business Wave

Jacobs sees AI-enabled physical applications as a step toward entirely new businesses, with broad economy-wide adoption and new industries still to come.