The shock of transitions? Mathias Burghardt's perspective at the Rencontres Économiques

Every July in the south of France, leaders from the worlds of business and politics gather for the forum Rencontres Économiques d’Aix-en-Provence for three days of debate on the economic challenges shaping the future.

A shock for Europe – but not the USA and China

This year's theme was shock in all its forms: geopolitical, technological, societal, environmental.  400 speakers from business, academia and government gathered to face up to the realities facing Europe.

The AI revolution is advancing at such a pace that it threatens to pull the world apart. This was one of the ideas that came up on the Saturday morning panel where Mathias Burghardt, Executive Vice-President of Ardian, spoke alongside CEOs and leaders from telecom, pharma, energy and mobility sectors. The panelists offered a sobering perspective on how the current moment is a shock for Europe – but not for the USA and China, who are surging ahead.

Change of investor paradigm

Mathias Burghardt explained that as intuitional investment capital will grow at a lower pace, the investment universe has also completely changed. Here too, Europe is late: whether financing the energy transition or the €800 billion required for digital innovation, energy transition and defense, responding to the shocks of our moment will require massive mobilization of private capital – notably individual private savings, which represents 50% of capital available.

The increasing ability for individual investors to access the alternatives markets is also a key opportunity for the households to diversify their portfolio and an important motor for economic growth in Europe, as it has been for the US in the past decades.

As a "data industry", finance is on the front line of these shifts. Burghardt explained that AI is changing the way private equity operates, from analysis to portfolio management. The intense investment this requires – in energy, infrastructure, data centers and water – favors players at scale and a concentration of resources.

Prediction, AI's next frontier?

Mathias Burghardt anticipates that AI's next step – a technological disruption that has never been seen before – will be prediction. This should help in the analysis of companies, identify sectors that will succeed in the future and change the way assets are priced.

A paradoxical thought in a world which has never felt more difficult to predict and in which, as Mathias reminded the audience, the best strategy remains diversification.