Alternative Data Weekly #239
Thanks for being here!
The theme that emerged in this week’s email is … What is your ROI metric?
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New: Extracting Alpha and Insights from YouTube Financial Video Content
“With the proliferation of data and AI, we’re getting to the point where you can kind of quant everything.” - Igor Tulchinsky
News Articles
Podcasts
Cool Charts
Final Thoughts (Getting Emotional About AI)
#1 – Jenn Spykerman published Measuring AI's True Value. May 2025.
My Take: I’ve noted in recent weeks the idea that enterprises are now focused on delivering ROI from AI projects. This is great, but how do you measure value? I agree with the author, who breaks measurement into two areas: revenue & productivity. The key is to measure workflows pre-AI and post-AI to see what has changed. One revenue metric we focus on at ModuleQ is increased engagement with CRM, indicative of more client/prospect engagement, which in turn leads to more revenue opportunities.
#2 – Google published The ROI of GenAI. May 2025.
My Take: This is a summary of a survey of 2,500+ business leaders. Similar to the above article, the ROI is focused on revenue (86% of respondents seeing benefit) and productivity. I found this to be surprisingly good: "of the organizations that report productivity gains, nearly half (45%) estimate employee productivity has at least doubled as a result of having gen AI in production.”
#3 – Sean Falconer & Matthew O’Keefe published AI Won’t Save You From Your Data Modeling Problems. May 2025.
My Take: The age old problem of who is reponsible for what. It is always the other guy when things go wrong. This article is get technical, but the key is data quality checks have to happen way before AI starts spitting out bad info.
BONUS: Thierry Foucault published Social platform Stocktwits and other sources of ‘alternative data’ may be hurting financial analysts’ long-term forecasts. May 2025.
“….we found that over the same period that saw a rise in accuracy of short-term projections, there was a drop in validity of long-term forecasts.”
“We inferred that because analysts had easy access to information for short-term analysis, they directed their energy there, which meant they had less attention for long-term forecasting.”
Related article: Does Alternative Data Improve Financial Forecasting? The Horizon Effect.
What else I am reading:
Refuel’s Rishabh Bhargava published We’re Joining Together.ai . May 2025.
Sarah Smith published Breaking Into the Financial Vertical as an Alternative Data Startup: Tips from Sarah Smith. May 2025.
Ben Lorica’s Deconstructing OpenAI's Path to $125 Billion. May 2025.
Nathan Lambert published My path into AI. May 2025.
Timothy B Lee published Three great articles on the modest pace of AI progress. May 2025.
Dan Entrup’s On the Proper Elocution of ‘Data’. May 2025.
Source: Matthew Demello of the AI in Financial Services podcast interviews Traci Mabrey of Dow Jones - Factiva. May 2025.
My Take: AI comes down to good data. This is where Factiva shines because they offer high-quality data with clear rights & lineage. Legal is in place, demonstrated rights to the data, they are leaning into transparency, citations and royalties, and payment mechanisms.
The host offers three keys:
Effective business intelligence needs high-quality data sources
Leveraging AI in business intelligence requires trust…can users rely on this?
Leadership means aligning technology with real-world business needs
Highlights (22-minute run time)
Minute 01:15 – interview starts
Minute 04:30 – AI arriving in financial services; highly regulated space
Minute 07:00 – human’s role in AI, particularly in reporting
Minute 08:15 – org chart is not the tech stack
Minute 12:00 – the problem of AI hallucinations
Minute 17:00 – key elements of a framework that sets the standard for content integrity
Source: Blue Street Data published Guide to Buying 3rd Party Data. May 2025.
My Take: It’s fitting that buying data should be a 12-step process.
BONUS: 2025 Dupont AI Survey. May 2025.
My Take: Is Google Search really done? For me, yes.
My Take: it’s cheating in school…not at work:
I thought this article from Michael Spencer & Wyndo was wild. The Loneliness Economy of AI. May 2025.
Citing this article from HBR: How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025. May 2025.
“…80% of Gen Z would consider marrying an AI. This generation—raised with unprecedented digital connection yet reporting record loneliness—is pioneering a new type of relationship.”
My Take: Loyal readers will know that I love a good Top Ten list. My biggest “use case” is idea generation, including asking for Dad jokes.
BONUS: Shout out to Harry Campbell of Driverless Digest on his most recent post: Waymo Stats 2025: Funding, Growth, Coverage, Fleet Size & More. May 2025.
My Take: I love this driverless stuff. 25x growth in 24 months. Whoa.
I'm a power user of gen ai, and it might make me 20% more productive. I would be curious to meet all those people whose productivity doubled...