“Health and AI, investment opportunities” is a round table developed within the Conference “Investment in Health and Artificial Intelligence: imagining the new medicine” recently organized by the Zaragoza College of Physicians, in collaboration with Singular Bank. Bellevue Funds (LUX) SICAV and Allianz GI, together with Self Bank, highlighted the importance that the megatrend of technological disruption in the health sector will acquire, which will enhance the possibilities of numerous companies in aspects such as the development of R&D. D, treatment and diagnosis or reduction of administrative costs. And, always, with the focus on the patient, who will benefit the most.
The day was coordinated by Juan Calatayud Pérez (Head of the Neurosurgery Service of the Lozano Blesa University Clinical Hospital of Zaragoza. Member of Private Medicine of the College of Physicians of Zaragoza) and Lola Lopez Castellotmember of the Private Banking office of Singular Bank of Zaragoza.
The first table focused on the debate on how AI can reduce the frequency of medical errors in practice and improve diagnostic accuracy and was attended by Diego Gutierrez Perez (Professor of Computer Science and Systems Engineering at the University of Zaragoza. Graphics & Imaging Lab research group), Lucas Martin Gago (Founder of Generative Intelligence. XPRIZE finalist and winner of a NASA Centenial Challenge) and Aroa Vivanco (National Manager of Relyens Digital Solutions).
As Lola López Castellot highlighted, for any project to materialize successfully, it is necessary that there are investors to support the initiatives. Likewise, he recalled that the mission of a good advisor is to take care of the health of his clients’ investments, a reflection that led to the second discussion table, focused on how to invest in Health and Artificial Intelligence through investment funds.
The table, which moderated Victoria Torre (Head of digital offer Self BankSingular Bank’s digital banking), had top-level managers: Juan Pedro Morenés (Business Development Director of Allianz Global Investors) was in charge of sharing with the attendees the relevance of Artificial Intelligence from the investor’s perspective, while Assisi Master (Business Development Director of Bellevue Funds (LUX) SICAV) contributed the experience and knowledge of its experts in the management of funds in the health sector.
One of the aspects in which there was unanimity throughout the debate is that, in recent years, there has been an interrelation between trends that has represented an important paradigm shift. It is difficult, at the current time, to consider megatrends as watertight compartments, since there is a deep interconnection between them. The connection between health and AI, Artificial Intelligence is, for the three guests of this round table, a new step that opens invisible borders and that will represent an exponential qualitative leap for the sector, with its reflection, in addition, in the markets. financial.
For Asis Maestre, Director of Business Development at Bellevue Funds (LUX) SICAV, all companies capable of putting AI at the center of their business will have a clear competitive advantage over the rest. It also highlights that health will be one of the industries that can obtain the greatest benefit from the application of AI. Specifically, the expert, referring to a PwC study, assures that there are several reasons to support this idea: firstly, technology will be key in reducing errors and inefficiencies, while, on the other hand, it will help that innovative processes are promoted, such as the development of medicines.
Technological innovation affects all areas of the economy and the health sector is no different. This innovation extends its branches to countless subsectors within it, citing some examples such as telemedicine, Big Data to detect diseases and anticipate their development, virtual or augmented reality when carrying out surgical operations, robotics or 3D printing. It is already possible to detect, at the current time, a small premium between companies that do use AI and those that do not, and this trend will undoubtedly grow. Artificial intelligence is a favorable tailwind for the health sector.
Juan Pedro Morenés, Business Developer at Allianz GI He categorically states that you cannot think about health without AI. It is expected that AI, according to some studies, will contribute to global growth by 15.7 trillion dollars until 2030, which is almost the GDP of the entire Chinese economy. Transversality is one of the main characteristics of AI, from the health sector to other sectors, such as agriculture. When investing, one of the doubts that investors may have is to what extent a company is exposed to a theme; In this sense, there are several ways to measure the purity of a company towards a megatrend, but one of the most used is to analyze the percentage of the company’s income that comes from it. However, it is important to understand that AI is not only disruptive on the revenue side but also on the cost side, since it allows essential optimization of the resources used. AI is turning the health sector around, significant advances in multiple aspects.
Victoria Torre, Head of Digital Offer at Self Bank by Singular Bank, emphasizes that, from an investor’s point of view, megatrends are an essential pillar for investment. If we are able to detect what the drivers of future growth are, we will be taking the right steps to build a successful portfolio in the long term.
There are many other megatrends that have high relevance. But, perhaps, when we talk about health, there is that human background that makes us especially sensitive to it. In this entire process, the greatest beneficiary has to be the patient, beyond the economic dimension. We just have to think about the changes that AI can bring in topics such as medical diagnoses, telemedicine, the interpretation of x-rays or preventive medicine, personalized with genetics. And, if this is relevant in developed countries, let’s extrapolate the radical change it could mean in third world countries. Without forgetting other factors, such as hospital efficiency or ICU processes, which could experience significant improvements.
Aside from its direct relationship with technology, there are other arguments why it could be interesting to include the health sector in the portfolio:
1) Resilience of the sector. Statistically, it is observed that the health sector appears, in times of stock market declines, to be more resilient than global equity indicators in the last 20 years. Thus, we have seen falls in the MSCI World in the financial crisis of 65%, while the health sector fell by 35%. In 2022, in a very adverse context after the war in Ukraine and abrupt increases in inflation, it withstood the falls much better than other sectors. In this sense, it is often considered a defensive sector.
2) Tailwinds within the sector. Supported by various factors. First, the aging of the population, which has multiple implications. It is estimated that, in 2025, 1 in 5 people in the world will be over 65 years old, being a segment with high purchasing power and expected to triple health spending; Demand, then, is one of the keys. Secondly, we cannot ignore the impact of innovation, which makes it easier for clinical trials to go up and costs to go down.
3) Double life of GLP1 drugs, the drug developed for diabetics to lower blood sugar, which is estimated to reach a market of $35 billion by 2030; Taking into account its use in weight loss treatments, it represents an expanded market of up to 100,000 million. All these trends will make it interesting to invest in them through investment funds.
Juan Pedro Morenés, Business Developer at Allianz GI points out that investing in AI causes exposure to the greatest disruptive force that lies ahead of us in the coming decades, and that will leave behind other technological revolutions as important as the Internet. AI will not only benefit companies directly related to it, but we can find the winners among companies from other very different sectors that have been able to take advantage of it to change their business models. We could refer to “corporate Darwinism”: not the strongest or the most handsome will triumph, but the one who best adapts to the situation; that will be the one that survives in the future. It is more than likely that companies that incorporate AI into their business models will be the ones that gain market share, and those that do not could face serious difficulties.
When we talk about technology or, more specifically, AI, one of the main concerns in the market is whether its implementation can have a negative impact on the labor market. Asís Maestre, Business Development Director of Bellevue Funds (LUX) SICAV considers that AI will mean a change in the way all industries work; in health, it will mean a true revolution in R&D issues, in treatment and diagnosis, in issues of reducing administrative costs (it is estimated that 25% of the administrative tasks of health professionals could be reduced)… But, in no case , this will replace human experience, skills or sensitivity. The expert does not want to stop commenting that AI represents spectacular advances, but also important challenges; One of them is related to certain ethical implications, due to the enormous data that is handled and its uses. Healthcare professionals need to be acutely aware of how to responsibly collect and use that information.
We can only reach one conclusion after this debate table: the advances of AI are admirable, but in no case should we forget the most important thing that underlies its interrelation with the health sector: contributing to a better, fairer, healthier world. Let us not forget that, within what we ask of life (Health, money and love), health always comes first.