More Than 65% of S&P 500 Earnings Calls for Q4 Cited “AI”

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 fourth 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 December 15 through March 11.

Overall, the term “AI” was cited on 331 earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies during this period. This number is well above the 5-year average of 149 and the 10-year average of 94.

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 314, which occurred in Q3 2025. This number also reflects 68% (331 out of 485) of the earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies during this period.

At the sector level, the Financials (67) and Information Technology (67) sectors have the highest number of earnings calls citing “AI” for Q4, while the Information Technology (94%), Financials (91%), and Communication Services (89%) sectors have the highest percentages of earnings calls citing “AI” for Q4.

On a quarter-over-quarter basis, the Financials (+13) and Health Care (+8) sectors recorded the largest increases in the number of earnings calls citing “AI” for Q4 2025 compared to Q3 2025.

It is interesting to note that S&P 500 companies that have cited “AI” on Q4 earnings calls have seen a lower average price increase compared to S&P 500 companies that have not cited “AI” on Q4 earnings calls from December 31, 2025, through March 10, 2026 (1.5% vs. 5.6%) and from September 30, 2025, through March 10, 2026 (4.4% vs. 4.9%).

 The FactSet Earnings Insight report is being published one day early this week on March 12. The next edition of the report will also be published one day early on March 19. 

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