Artificial intelligence has been a focus topic for the market for several quarters. Given the heightened interest, have more S&P 500 companies than normal commented on “AI” during their earnings conference calls for the third quarter?
The answer is yes. FactSet Document Search (which allows users to search for key words or phrases across multiple document types) was used to answer this question. Through Document Search, FactSet searched for the term “AI” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from September 15 through December 4.
Overall, the term “AI” was cited on 306 earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies during this period. This number is well above the 5-year average of 136 and the 10-year average of 86.
In fact, this is the highest number of S&P 500 earnings calls on which “AI” has been cited over the past 10 years (using current index constituents going back in time). The previous record over the past 10 years was 292, which occurred in Q2 2025.
At the sector level, the Information Technology sector has the highest number (63) of earnings calls citing “AI” for Q3, while the Information Technology (95%) and Communication Services (95%) sectors have the highest percentages of earnings calls citing “AI” for Q3.
It is interesting to note that S&P 500 companies that have cited “AI” on Q3 earnings calls have seen a higher average price increase compared to S&P 500 companies that have not cited “AI” on Q3 earnings calls since December 31 (13.9% vs. 5.7%), since June 30 (8.1% vs. 3.9%), and since September 30 (1.0% vs. 0.3%).
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This blog post is for informational purposes only. The information contained in this blog post is not legal, tax, or investment advice. FactSet does not endorse or recommend any investments and assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained in this article.
Insight/Author%20Bios/JohnButters2.jpg)
Mr. John Butters is Vice President and Senior Earnings Analyst at FactSet. His weekly research report, “Earnings Insight,” provides analysis and commentary on trends in corporate earnings data for the S&P 500 including revisions to estimates, year-over-year growth, performance relative to expectations, and valuations. He is a widely used source for the media and has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business News, and the Business News Network. In addition, he has been cited by numerous print and online publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times, MarketWatch, and Yahoo! Finance. Mr. Butters has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to FactSet in January 2011, he worked for more than 10 years at Thomson Reuters (Thomson Financial), most recently as Director of U.S. Earnings Research (2007-2010).
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The information contained in this article is not investment advice. FactSet does not endorse or recommend any investments and assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained in this article.
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