Friday Five: 2 trends, 2 insights & 1 joke to spark your curiosity
Friday Five: 2 trends, 2 insights & 1 joke to spark your curiosity
The Pumpkin spice mania, consumer AI opportunity, Central & South Asia leading the way in crypto adoption, the best joke of the week & more...
At a Glance
📈 Trend: Pumpkin spice season is upon us. Searches for “pumpkin spice” on Google Trends is at an all time high compared to previous years on September. People are also searching for pumpkin spice toilet paper, sugar scrubs, air scrubs and wipes.
💰 Insight: We’re now entering an era where AI-native services will be personalized to each user, think of high touch industries like tutors, personal trainers, doctors. And the opportunity would be 5-20% higher than what it is today.
🤣Joke: Read below to laugh.
📊 Trend: Highest number of companies in the S&P 500 cite “AI” in their Q2 earnings call. Turns out the companies that cited “AI” are seeing their stock price outperform compared to the ones that did not cite “AI”.
🤩 Insight: Worldwide crypto adoption is down according to Chainanalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index. However, lower middle income (LMI) countries are seeing a much stronger recovery than anywhere else. With 40% of the world’s population living in LMI countries, this could be extremely promising for crypto’s future prospects.
🍂 Enter the Pumpkin spice season
Pumpkin spice season is on us!!!
While the squash in its natural state isn’t fully in season until close to winter, Americans love the hype that comes with pumpkin flavored products, which has surged beyond just lattes and pie.
Jenny Lee, the lead data analyst for Google Trends, told Good Morning America that "pumpkin spice spikes every September, but this month, it’s already being searched more than ever.” 🥧
“I’m seeing lots of non-food related pumpkin spice products such as toilet paper, sugar scrubs and air fresheners," she explained. "In fact, 'pumpkin spice wipes' were the top trending non-food or drink pumpkin spice search this month."
🤑 The AI price opportunity for high touch industries
Having a highly personalized experience is what consumers value the most about in-person services—think of tutors, personal trainers, and doctors.
We are in the early stage of a radical shift and opportunity that generative AI presents in high-touch industries where personalization matters the most to consumers.
There are technical hurdles to overcome, but as companies introduce multi-modality and improve model memory, latency, and steering, they can tailor their services to each individual’s preferences and usage over time.
As a result, we’re now entering an era where AI-native services can and will be personalized to each user. Although most of the value created by these AI-native companies will accrue to consumers in the form of consumer surplus, we roughly estimate the total opportunity will soon be 5–20x+ higher than it is today.
💰 The best Econ joke of the week
🤖 Highest number of companies cited “AI” on Q2 earnings call.
At a sector level, the Information Technology has the highest number (56) and percentage (88%) of S&P 500 companies citing “AI” on Q2 earnings calls.
It is also interesting to note that S&P 500 companies that cited “AI” on Q2 earnings calls have seen a better average stock price performance in recent months compared to S&P 500 companies that did not cite “AI” on Q2 earnings calls.
For S&P 500 companies that cited “AI” on Q2 earnings calls, the average change in price since June 30 is -0.8% and the average change in price since December 31 is 13.3%.
For S&P 500 companies that did not cite “AI” on Q2 earnings calls, the average change in price since June 30 is -2.3% and the average change in price since December 31 is 1.5%.
💸 Central & Southern Asia are leading the way in grassroots crypto adoption
As per the latest Chainanalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index, worldwide grassroots crypto adoption is down.
While there’s been a marked recovery since the doldrums of late 2022, around the time FTX imploded, grassroots adoption is still well off its all-time highs.
But there’s one crucial segment of countries where grassroots adoption has seen a much stronger recovery than anywhere else: Lower middle income (LMI) countries.
In fact, LMI is the only category of countries whose total grassroots adoption remains above where it was in Q3 2020, just prior to the most recent bull market. This could be extremely promising for crypto’s future prospects. LMI countries are often countries on the rise, with dynamic, growing industries and populations.
Many of them have undergone significant economic development in the last few decades to rise from the low income group.
And perhaps most importantly of all, 40% of the world’s population live in LMI countries — more than any other income category.
If LMI countries are the future, then the data indicates that crypto is going to be a big part of that future. That, combined with the fact that institutional adoption — primarily driven by organizations in high-income countries — continues to gain steam even during the ongoing crypto winter, paints a promising picture of the future.
🗳️ Let’s do some quick polling for fun!!!
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Amrita