Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming industries, with white-collar jobs like programming, finance and law facing early disruption. At the same time, companies behind cloud infrastructure, semiconductors and power generation stand to benefit from surging AI demand.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Rick Sherlund, managing director of TMS Investment Banking at Wedbush, about how AI’s growth is reshaping the workforce, straining infrastructure and creating new investment opportunities across the technology landscape.
Key Takeaways
- AI is displacing entry-level coding and research jobs while boosting productivity in white-collar sectors.
- Hyperscalers, chipmakers and power providers are major beneficiaries of soaring AI demand.
- Enterprise adoption of AI is just beginning, with strong long-term demand expected.
- Power generation and data centre expansion are emerging as key capacity challenges.
- AI raises both productivity potential and social risks, from job loss to governance concerns.
Read the full transcript below:
ANDREW: Tech shares came under pressure last week as investors worried, among other things, about whether all the spending commitments being made by OpenAI, the artificial intelligence giant, can be funded.
Our guest advises clients on strategic and financial deals across the AI and broader technology landscape. We’re joined by Rick Sherlund, making his debut on BNN Bloomberg, managing director in tech investment banking at Wedbush.
Thanks very much for joining us, Rick.
RICK: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.
ANDREW: You’re a well-known player and dealmaker in technology, and you and your team just joined Wedbush.
RICK: Yeah. So I started my own firm, Sherlund Partners, and we focus on AI. I’ve partnered with Wedbush. They have a great team that’s also very focused on disruptive technology. We think we’ll be well positioned to take advantage of the consolidation and advisory opportunities available in this AI space. Every company becomes an AI company, so we think it’s a very exciting opportunity.
ANDREW: It’s amazing—every company becomes an AI company. Before we get into that, who are going to be the big winners? I know that’s a broad question, but for investors in equities, what looks most promising right now?
RICK: I like the way you’ve worded that. As an investment banker, I can’t talk about specific stocks. As a research analyst for many years, you couldn’t shut me up—I loved talking about stocks. But let’s talk about sectors.
The hyperscalers are clear beneficiaries because they provide compute capacity, storage and networking, and AI has near-infinite demands for compute power. That sector has been a big beneficiary.The concern, as you mentioned, has been about the capital spending required ahead of demand. Right now, we’re not demand constrained—we’re supply constrained. The challenge is delivering the data centre capacity everyone needs.That benefits the chip companies and the power sector. A tremendous amount of electricity is going to be required, and that may be one of the bigger constraints we’ll face going forward. The whole electrification sector is going through a renaissance right now.As you move up the tech stack, the software companies that have data are also in a strong position. Data is a gold mine for AI—it needs lots of it. We’re seeing AI move beyond consumer applications, like Perplexity or ChatGPT, into enterprise use as part of normal workflows. So demand from business users is just getting started. We’re very optimistic about demand going forward. We just have to make sure we have the money to finance all the data centre expansion, the power to fuel it and, of course, enough chips.
ANDREW: Just to remind people, hyperscalers are the huge providers of cloud computing. I know you’re not getting into individual stocks, but people think of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
What about jobs? What areas of the economy are most vulnerable to disruption from AI?
RICK: The first area is programming. AI is very good at coding, so it’s hard to get an entry-level programming job now. Knowledge workers are also exposed because AI is really good at looking up information, summarizing it and doing it fast. Entry-level jobs on Wall Street or at law firms are harder to get.
The least exposed jobs are blue-collar ones requiring a physical presence. We don’t yet have robotics capable of matching human dexterity and muscle. Those positions are more secure for now.
In healthcare, AI is excellent at diagnosis—it can read X-rays, for example. I use Perplexity sometimes, and I’m amazed by what it can tell me. AI doesn’t reason well, but it’s like a friend with a photographic memory. You can ask it a question, and it tells you what it’s read.
The ability to discover new molecules for drug design is phenomenal. What takes a PhD six months to a year can now be done much faster using AI models. This is going to be very profound, and it’s just getting started.The Street is concerned about whether there’s enough money to build out data centres. It’s breathtaking—five big cloud computing companies are spending about $375 billion this year on AI, and some, like OpenAI, are making trillion-dollar commitments. Hence the concern: can they fund those commitments?Sam Altman recently said on a podcast that, of course, they can’t yet—but they’ll grow fast enough to fund them. That kind of talk worries investors, but capital markets are deep. The debt markets are being tapped, and given how profound this technological change is, I think we’ll find the money to keep expanding and meeting obligations.
ANDREW: Do you think AI will make us stupid, Rick? It makes research so easy, and of course, students are already using it to write essays.
RICK: When we’ve seen previous automation waves—factory automation, electricity, the automotive industry—they’ve created whole new industries. Cars, for example, led to gas stations, hotels and highways.We’ll see something similar with AI. It’s hard to predict exactly where those re-skilled jobs will appear, but I don’t think it will make us dumb. I do worry about unemployment, though. That’s a concern across sectors and countries, with potential geopolitical and social implications.
There are also safety concerns—think of the “Terminator 3” scenario. You don’t want AI making decisions without humans in the loop. Once we reach artificial general intelligence—where machines are as smart as people—and then superintelligence—where they’re smarter than we are—things could get unpredictable.
Right now, there’s a global race with China to develop AI the fastest. Guardrails are often a secondary concern, but that will need to change.
ANDREW: Rick, thank you very much.
RICK: Thank you.
ANDREW: That’s Rick Sherlund, managing director in tech investment banking at Wedbush.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Nov. 10, 2025 interview with Rick Sherlund are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
