Special Encore: Who’s Disrupting — and Funding — the AI Boom

December 29, 2025

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

The Format: This live panel discussion from Morgan Stanley's Global Consumer and Retail Conference dives into the transformative impact of AI on U.S. consumer companies, blending expert analysis with real-world examples in a technical and forward-looking exchange that feels like a high-stakes strategy session amid economic shifts.
The Format: A moderated panel discussion with analysts sharing insights on AI adoption.
The Key Players:
- Simeon Gutman (U.S. hardlines, broadlines, and food retail analyst): Leads the AI assessment framework, renowned for ranking companies on AI implementation.
- Megan Clapp (U.S. food producers and leisure analyst): Highlights early-stage adoption in staples and food, spotlighting scalable pilots and data advantages.
- Arunamassinha (Global and U.S. economics team): Ties AI to macroeconomic forecasts, emphasizing productivity boosts and labor market effects.
- Unnamed Host: Guides the conversation smoothly, probing for examples and bridging retail specifics to broader economic implications, fostering a collaborative analyst chemistry focused on actionable AI insights.

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What you'll learn

1 `(00:00)` **🎙️ Introduction: Aruna Sinha, Simeon Gutman, and Megan Clapp**
2 `(01:43)` **Simeon Gutman on Assessing the AI Race**
3 `(03:33)` **Walmart as Full-Scale AI Leader**
4 `(04:12)` **Real-World AI Use Cases in Retail**
5 `(05:13)` **Megan Clapp on AI Adoption in Food/Staples: Early Innings**
6 `(07:01)` **Winners in Food/Staples AI Adoption**
7 `(09:33)` **Agentic Commerce: Opportunities and Risks**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Original Release Date: November 13, 2025

Live from Morgan Stanley’s European Tech, Media and Telecom Conference in Barcelona, our roundtable of analysts discusses tech disruptions and datacenter growth, and how Europe factors in.

Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.

----- Transcript -----

Paul Walsh: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Paul Walsh, Morgan Stanley's European Head of Research Product.

Today we return to my conversation with Adam Wood. Head of European Technology and Payments, Emmet Kelly, Head of European Telco and Data Centers, and Lee Simpson, Head of European Technology.

We were live on stage at Morgan Stanley's 25th TMT Europe conference. We had so much to discuss around the themes of AI enablers, semiconductors, and telcos. So, we are back with a concluding episode on tech disruption and data center investments.

It's Thursday the 13th of November at 8am in Barcelona.

After speaking with the panel about the U.S. being overweight AI enablers, and the pockets of opportunity in Europe, I wanted to ask them about AI disruption, which has been a key theme here in Europe. I started by asking Adam how he was thinking about this theme.

Adam Wood: It’s fascinating to see this year how we've gone in most of those sectors to how positive can GenAI be for these companies? How well are they going to monetize the opportunities? How much are they going to take advantage internally to take their own margins up? To flipping in the second half of the year, mainly to, how disruptive are they going to be? And how on earth are they going to fend off these challenges?

Paul Walsh: And I think that speaks to the extent to which, as a theme, this has really, you know, built momentum.

Adam Wood: Absolutely. And I mean, look, I think the first point, you know, that you made is absolutely correct – that it's very difficult to disprove this. It's going to take time for that to happen. It's impossible to do in the short term. I think the other issue is that what we've seen is – if we look at the revenues of some of the companies, you know, and huge investments going in there.

And investors can clearly see the benefit of GenAI. And so investors are right to ask the question, well, where's the revenue for these businesses?

You know, where are we seeing it in info services or in IT services, or in enterprise software. And the reality is today, you know, we're not seeing it. And it's hard for analysts to point to evidence that – well, no, here's the revenue base, here's the benefit that's coming through. And so, investors naturally flip to, well, if there's no benefit, then surely, we should focus on the risk.

So, I think we totally understand, you