Elevating Investor Relations: A Global Conversation
Aug 31, 2026 · 53 min · 11 segments
Join Mark and David this week as they chat with Matt Brusch, CEO & President of NIRI: The Association for Investor Relations. Episode references: - Brunswick 2026 US Investor Survey…
Matt BruschGuest
Mark HayesHost
David GrunfeldHost
In that context, Matt, a little thing called AI has emerged in the profession over the last several years.
How are you thinking about that and how is that changing the role of IR in terms of how folks are doing their job and then how they're engaging with investors?
This is, you know, as you know, Mark, you were part of our annual conference committee.
We, you know, as we do a call for session proposals every year before the conference, you know, in the last two years, You know, we could have done our annual conference on nothing but AI and investor relations, right? This is just the hottest of the hot topics.
And, I mean, there's always going to be a hot topic and there's always going to be evolution in the profession, right? But this one certainly seems like it has the opportunity to really transform the profession if you're interested and willing to understand it and embrace it and kind of bring it in.
But, yeah, we're definitely already in kind of an environment where this is – you know, this is having an influence and an impact.
I know, again, if I'm going to refer to someone else's work here, Eric Carlson from Notified, or Equinity, I guess, you know, he put up a LinkedIn post the other day, as I think back on it, and it was about, let's see, I've made some notes here for myself.
He pointed to the Brunswick group survey earlier that found that 54%, I'm just going to quote here, of institutional investors consider AI important in their investment research process.
46% said they're more likely to skip an earnings call and rely on AI generated summaries.
40% said that they trust AI generated summaries of financial content as much as sell side research.
I would talk to the buy side and they laughed about sell side research back then.
But anyway, it looks like they're willing to look at AI generated summaries before sell side research.
And he pointed out to an investing.com survey that found that 62% of retail investors use AI to help inform their investment decisions.
His point was that the investors still make a judgment, but AI can shape what they see first.
Certainly retail, you know, this important key stakeholders are looking at this and using it and leveraging it.
So what does that mean for us? It means, you know, it's important to understand in this, you know, this age of AI, um, you know, asking AI questions, it's, it's important to understand how AI sources that material, um, and make sure that, you know, you, you, your company, your information is a, uh, you know, is a key source for that information.
So make it understand and, and, you know, organizations like, um, Eric's and others can help you understand this, but understand how it's, how those, those, uh, you know, those AI tools, get that information, make it easy for them to do so, make sure that, you know, that it's presented in a way that doesn't lead to misinterpretation to the extent that that's possible.
We did a, you know, on the 50th anniversary of NERI's founding, NERI was founded in 1969.
So we did a, we put together a task force back then, it was the working group on the future of investor relations and found that AI was, you know, this was 2018, was going to be one of the things that was most transformative.
In that context, Matt, a little thing called AI has emerged in the profession over the last several years.
How are you thinking about that and how is that changing the role of IR in terms of how folks are doing their job and then how they're engaging with investors?
This is, you know, as you know, Mark, you were part of our annual conference committee.
We, you know, as we do a call for session proposals every year before the conference, you know, in the last two years, You know, we could have done our annual conference on nothing but AI and investor relations, right? This is just the hottest of the hot topics.
And, I mean, there's always going to be a hot topic and there's always going to be evolution in the profession, right? But this one certainly seems like it has the opportunity to really transform the profession if you're interested and willing to understand it and embrace it and kind of bring it in.
But, yeah, we're definitely already in kind of an environment where this is – you know, this is having an influence and an impact.
I know, again, if I'm going to refer to someone else's work here, Eric Carlson from Notified, or Equinity, I guess, you know, he put up a LinkedIn post the other day, as I think back on it, and it was about, let's see, I've made some notes here for myself.
He pointed to the Brunswick group survey earlier that found that 54%, I'm just going to quote here, of institutional investors consider AI important in their investment research process.
46% said they're more likely to skip an earnings call and rely on AI generated summaries.
40% said that they trust AI generated summaries of financial content as much as sell side research.
I would talk to the buy side and they laughed about sell side research back then.
But anyway, it looks like they're willing to look at AI generated summaries before sell side research.
And he pointed out to an investing.com survey that found that 62% of retail investors use AI to help inform their investment decisions.
His point was that the investors still make a judgment, but AI can shape what they see first.
Certainly retail, you know, this important key stakeholders are looking at this and using it and leveraging it.
So what does that mean for us? It means, you know, it's important to understand in this, you know, this age of AI, um, you know, asking AI questions, it's, it's important to understand how AI sources that material, um, and make sure that, you know, you, you, your company, your information is a, uh, you know, is a key source for that information.
So make it understand and, and, you know, organizations like, um, Eric's and others can help you understand this, but understand how it's, how those, those, uh, you know, those AI tools, get that information, make it easy for them to do so, make sure that, you know, that it's presented in a way that doesn't lead to misinterpretation to the extent that that's possible.
We did a, you know, on the 50th anniversary of NERI's founding, NERI was founded in 1969.
So we did a, we put together a task force back then, it was the working group on the future of investor relations and found that AI was, you know, this was 2018, was going to be one of the things that was most transformative.
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