Artificial intelligence has been a focus topic for the market for the past few years. Given the heightened interest, did more S&P 500 companies than normal comment on “AI” during their earnings conference calls for the first quarter?
The answer is yes. FactSet searched for the term “AI” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from March 15 through June 11.
Overall, the term “AI” was cited on 337 earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies during this period. This number is well above the 5-year average of 164 and the 10-year average of 103.
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 334, which occurred in the previous quarter (Q4 2025). This number also reflects 68% (337 out of 498) of the earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies during this period.
At the sector level, the Information Technology (71) and Financials (69) sectors have the highest number of earnings calls citing “AI” for Q1, while the Information Technology (97%), Communication Services (94%), and Financials (92%) sectors have the highest percentages of earnings calls citing “AI” for Q1.
S&P 500 companies that have cited “AI” on Q1 earnings calls have seen a higher average price increase compared to S&P 500 companies that have not cited “AI” on Q1 earnings calls since March 31, 2026 (12.7% vs. 2.6%) and since December 31, 2025 (13.1% vs. 7.7%). However, S&P 500 companies that have cited “AI” on Q1 earnings calls have seen a lower median price increase compared to S&P 500 companies that have not cited “AI” on earnings calls since December 31, 2025 (5.5% vs. 6.2%).
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