Core Insights - Renaissance Investment Management's Q3 2025 "Large Cap Growth Strategy" underperformed compared to the Russell 1000 Growth and S&P 500 despite overall stock market gains [1] - Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) was identified as the largest detractor from the portfolio performance in Q3 2025, with significant declines in its stock value over the past year [2][3] Performance Summary - The S&P 500 reached all-time highs in September, with a quarterly return of 8.1%, while the Russell 1000 Growth returned 10.5% [1] - Gartner, Inc. experienced a one-month return of -2.77% and a 52-week decline of 50.68%, closing at $255.58 per share with a market capitalization of $19.357 billion on October 27, 2025 [2] Company Analysis - Gartner, Inc. reported Q3 results that exceeded expectations, but its Contract Value (CV) revenue growth moderated more than anticipated due to a challenging sales environment influenced by tariffs and federal government expenditure delays [3] - Concerns are rising regarding the impact of Generative AI on Gartner's proprietary technology research and its potential to disintermediate the company's value [3] Hedge Fund Interest - Gartner, Inc. was held by 45 hedge fund portfolios at the end of Q2 2025, a decrease from 51 in the previous quarter, indicating a decline in popularity among hedge funds [4]

Core Insights - Maintaining a high Net Promoter Score (NPS) is essential for customer acquisition and retention, shifting focus from mass marketing to network-based advocacy [1][2] - The survey reveals that lower fees and recommendations from friends or family are the primary drivers for customers switching banks, yet only 1.93% of consumers globally changed their main bank in 2025, highlighting the importance of reputation and NPS [2][10] - Financial education is crucial, as many consumers lack confidence in investing, with only 33% investing for retirement and barriers like limited understanding persisting [8][9] Customer Behavior and Preferences - Satisfaction levels in banking drop significantly in areas such as pricing transparency and loyalty rewards, indicating a gap in traditional banks' focus on long-tenure clients [3] - Despite the dominance of online channels for daily activities, over half of consumers still prefer visiting branches for account openings and mortgage applications, particularly affluent clients [6][7] - The paradox of modern banking shows that while digital convenience is standard, personal connection and confidence remain key differentiators [7] Technological Investments - Banks are heavily investing in generative AI and cloud infrastructure to enhance customer support and reduce operating costs, allowing for lower fees and faster services [5] - Real-time payment systems now cover 79% of the global population, but only 19% utilize these systems for both peer-to-peer and retail purchases, indicating a need for broader adoption [11] Payment Models and Security - Open-banking-driven account-to-account payments are gaining traction, especially in regions like Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, enabling instant settlements and faster access to funds for merchants [12][13] - Security remains a critical factor in mobile payment adoption, with 30% of non-users willing to adopt mobile wallets if they offer better security than traditional methods [17] - The rise in financial fraud, with 28% of consumers affected in 2025, emphasizes the need for banks to implement advanced AI-based detection and consumer education [19][20] Strategic Imperatives - The report emphasizes that success in 2025 will depend on balancing automation with authenticity, as consumers expect personalized service while ensuring the safety of their money and data [21] - Institutions that achieve a balance of responsible data use, fair pricing, financial education, and secure transactions will lead the next phase of global banking transformation [22]

In this articleMETAMark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., wears a pair of Meta Oakley Vanguard AI glasses during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMeta's AI app has seen a major jolt in downloads since launching its Vibes feed of AI-generated videos, giving investors a glimpse of the company's artificial intelligence strategy ahead of Wednesday's third-quarter earnings.Since releasing Vibes ...

Accessibility StatementSkip Navigation Other Third Quarter Highlights Key Financial Statement and Operating Metrics | Three | | | | --- | --- | --- | | Months | | | | Ended | Nine Months Ended September 30, | | | September | | | | 30, | | | | 2025 | 2024 2025 2024 | | | (in | | | | millions, | | | | except | | | | LTM net | | | | revenue | | | | per active | | | | customer, | | | | average | | | | ordervalue | | | | and per | | | | share | | | | data) | | | | Key | | | | Financial | | | | Statement | | | | ...

The piece explores the key areas where banks face major decision-making challenges and how they are cautiously optimising their GenAI capabilitiesYet, behind the scenes, they are cautiously implementing GenAI, carefully selecting use cases to manage regulatory risks and LLM hallucinationsSome of the key areas where Indian banks are experimenting with GenAI are sales and relationship growth, customer experience, decision support & business modelling, and moreBack in 2018, when GenAI had yet to become the big ...

Core Insights - Global equity markets experienced a rally in Q3 2025, driven by enthusiasm for generative AI and strong capital flows into semiconductors, with the MSCI All Country World Index reaching record highs and returning 7.7% [7][8] - The U.S. equities outperformed due to robust economic growth and earnings, while emerging markets, particularly China, saw significant gains fueled by AI optimism and supportive government policies [8][9] - The investment strategy focused on quality growth faced challenges as the market favored high-beta growth stocks, leading to underperformance relative to broader indexes [8][16] Market Performance - The Polen Global Growth Composite Portfolio returned 3.0% gross of fees and 2.7% net of fees in Q3 2025, underperforming the MSCI All Country World Index [17] - Top contributors to the portfolio's performance included Oracle, Shopify, and Alphabet, while the largest detractors were Paycom, SAP, and Adyen [17][18] Investment Activity - New positions were established in NVIDIA, Broadcom, TSMC, Boston Scientific, and Uber, while positions in ADP, Airbnb, Accenture, and Thermo Fisher Scientific were eliminated to optimize portfolio positioning [22][23] - The decision to invest in semiconductor companies was influenced by the increasing demand for AI-related hardware, with NVIDIA expected to generate earnings growth of approximately 20% per year [25][26] Economic Context - The U.S. economy grew at a revised annual rate of 3.8% in Q2 2025, driven by technology capital expenditures and AI-related spending, despite concerns over a softening labor market [10][13] - The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 25 basis points for the first time in 2025, indicating a shift in focus towards employment [13] Sector Analysis - Defensive sectors like healthcare and consumer staples lagged as the market bifurcated into 'AI winners or losers,' with high-beta growth companies dominating returns [15][16] - The hyperscaler management teams indicated significant increases in future capital expenditures, particularly for AI-related projects, reflecting strong demand in the sector [14] Company-Specific Highlights - Oracle reported a 359% increase in remaining performance obligations, highlighting the demand for cloud computing and AI infrastructure [11][12] - Boston Scientific is expected to grow earnings in the mid-teens over the next 3-5 years, driven by its innovative medical products [29] - Uber anticipates nearly $200 billion in booking transactions for 2025, with a projected earnings growth of around 20% per annum over the next five years [30]

Core Insights - Amazon is set to announce significant job cuts, marking the largest reduction in its corporate workforce in history, affecting nearly all business areas [1][2] - The company plans to lay off up to 30,000 employees, as reported by Reuters [2] - Since 2022, Amazon has already laid off over 27,000 employees through ongoing reductions, with recent layoffs impacting its cloud, stores, communications, and devices divisions [3] Cost-Cutting Strategy - The layoffs are part of a broader cost-cutting initiative led by CEO Andy Jassy, which began during the Covid-19 pandemic [4] - Jassy aims to simplify the corporate structure by reducing management layers to create a flatter organization [4] - The company anticipates further workforce reductions as it integrates generative AI, which may lead to a shift in job requirements and a decrease in the total corporate workforce over the next few years [4]

Core Insights - Alphabet's third-quarter 2025 results are anticipated to show strong performance driven by Search and Cloud businesses, with advertising revenues expected to reach $72.45 billion, reflecting a 10% year-over-year growth [1] - Google Cloud revenues are projected at $14.66 billion, indicating a robust 29% growth compared to the previous year [1] - Overall revenues for Alphabet are estimated at $84.71 billion, representing a 13.6% increase from the same quarter last year [1] Search Business - The Search segment is benefiting from the integration of AI technologies, with a market share of 90.4%, significantly ahead of competitors like Microsoft's Bing at 4.08% [4] - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Search and other revenues stands at $55.09 billion, suggesting an 11.5% growth year-over-year [5] Cloud Business - Google Cloud is positioned as the third-largest provider in the cloud infrastructure market, holding a 20% market share, while Amazon leads with 30% [6] - The Cloud segment is experiencing growth due to strong demand for AI infrastructure and partnerships, particularly with NVIDIA, which enhances its offerings with advanced GPU technology [7][8] - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cloud revenues is currently pegged at $14.66 billion, indicating a 29.1% growth from the previous year [8]

There’s an emerging class of artificial intelligence users: Older people who use generative AI to combat isolation. https://t.co/uwu00VTJ6y ...

LangChain Essentials Course Highlights - LangChain releases a new LangChain Essentials course for learning the basics of LangChain in an hour [1] - The course focuses on building agents using the `create_agent` abstraction [2] - The pre-built agent utilizes a ReAct-style architecture for reasoning and acting with tools [3] Agent Architecture and Scalability - The agent is built on LangGraph to balance flexibility with pre-built abstraction benefits [4] - The agent is designed to be scalable, resilient to failures, and allows for human intervention [3] - The agent can dynamically select prompts and models, with optional middleware for customization [4] Course Content - The course covers features of the `create_agent` abstraction through building increasingly sophisticated agents [5] - The course utilizes LangChain building blocks including messages, tools, and models [5]