Artificial intelligence is reshaping global markets, and one of the analysts following the trend most closely is Achille Monet of UBS. During a recent visit to Monaco, Monet shared his insights into the trajectory of AI and why he believes this new wave of technology represents a generational opportunity for investors.
Monet was raised in Singapore and educated in British schools before attending university in the United Kingdom. A Swiss national, he went on to join UBS in Zurich, where he now works in the Chief Investment Office. His role involves covering European technology stocks with a focus on AI, while also contributing to UBS’s broader global strategy around artificial intelligence.
AI’s impact on productivity and business operations
Speaking at an investor event hosted by UBS Monaco, Monet said AI is not just a breakthrough but a foundational shift in how businesses will operate. “We truly believe this is a platform shift,” he said. “The marginal cost of generating intelligence is getting close to zero. That’s a very big deal. It’s like what the internet did for distribution.”
He said AI systems are already producing significant productivity gains, with some use cases delivering tenfold or even hundredfold improvements. That kind of performance, according to Monet, is what’s driving companies to accelerate investment, particularly in infrastructure. “We haven’t yet found the limits of this technology,” he said. “That’s pushing companies to spend aggressively, because the payoff could be massive.”
Data centres, demand, and the AI value chain
In the next five years, Monet expects strong progress on both the supply and demand sides of the AI economy. On the supply side, technology firms are building out massive data centre clusters with tens of thousands of GPUs. On the demand side, companies are finding ways to integrate AI into everyday operations—from software development to digital marketing. “We think coding, customer care and advertising are three early areas where AI will be monetised at scale,” he said.
Monet also explained why investors need to understand the AI value chain. The first layer, he said, is at the silicon level, where the industry has moved away from CPUs to GPUs, with firms like NVIDIA dominating. Above that sits the computing layer, where traditional data centres are giving way to AI data centres with higher memory, more advanced networking, and far greater capacity. The final layer is application-based, where AI models are changing how users interact with services and software.
“What’s new is the model layer,” said Monet. “Eventually we’ll see AI agents that can interact autonomously with each other, with no human input. That’s how big this shift is. Every layer of the stack is being redefined.”
Regulation, ethics, and the risk of misinformation
On regulation, Monet said the pace of innovation is making it difficult for lawmakers to keep up. While some rules are beginning to take shape, particularly around declaring large-scale models, there is no global standard yet. He added that U.S. politics could dramatically influence regulatory direction, especially in the case of a change in administration.
On ethical concerns, Monet said he is not particularly alarmed by fears of mass job losses. “This is more about job augmentation than job replacement,” he said. “Like calculators or ATMs, AI will make people more productive by taking over repetitive tasks.” He did, however, note the growing risk of misinformation. “Unlike search engines that give you a list of sources, AI gives you a direct answer. And that answer may not always be accurate.”
Where investors should look next
Looking ahead, Monet said the biggest megatrend for investors is the continuation of scaling laws—where more computing power leads to smarter models. “We’re now entering the next phase, where it’s not just about training a model, but getting it to think longer or reason more deeply. That’s where we’re heading.”
He added that while large tech companies such as Microsoft and Google are best positioned to capitalise on AI thanks to their scale and integration, there is still room for smaller firms to innovate. “It’s the big players who have the infrastructure,” he said. “But as adoption increases, there will be space for new entrants, especially in the application layer.”
Asked whether the AI race would come down to the United States and China, Monet said scale plays a major role in developing cutting-edge models. But he also pointed out that innovation in areas like enterprise software, customer tools and consumer applications can happen anywhere in the world.
As for investors wondering how to gain exposure, Monet recommended looking to the U.S. IT sector, which UBS currently rates as its most attractive segment. “We’re just scratching the surface of the generative AI transition,” he said. “And valuations are still reasonable. These are not dot-com bubble multiples.”
He concluded with a cautious note about forecasting too far ahead. “We have a 12-month view on this,” he said. “Nobody can say exactly what 2027 will look like. But we’re confident that hardware, especially semiconductors, will remain central to this story.”
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Photo of Achilles Monet at UBS Monaco, by Cassandra Tanti, Monaco Life
