In this episode of Financial Perspectives, host Tanya Tang sits down with Asad Malik, CFA, Head of ML Finance & Infrastructure Strategy at Google, to discuss how artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming finance, investing, and productivity.

Asad breaks down the surge in AI investment since 2022, the rapid growth in infrastructure spending, and why scaling laws and vertical integration are redefining the economics of innovation. He explains why AI may be overhyped in the short term but underappreciated in the long run and highlights key areas of opportunity—from drug discovery and automation to AI-driven productivity efficiencies.

Listeners will also hear practical advice for finance professionals on adopting AI tools, maintaining essential analytical skills, and leveraging AI as a powerful productivity advantage.

Tune in for a strategic financial perspective on AI’s impact on finance, investment strategy, and the future of work.

Lindsey Helman: Hello and welcome to Financial Perspectives, a CFA Society San

Lindsey Helman: Francisco podcast, where we interview and discuss trends

Lindsey Helman: with leaders from across the investment and finance industry.

Lindsey Helman: This month, our host Tanya

Lindsey Helman: Suba-Tang, membership director

Lindsey Helman: with CFA Society San Francisco,

Lindsey Helman: had the pleasure of speaking

Lindsey Helman: with Asad Malik, CFA, head of

Lindsey Helman: Machine learning Finance and

Lindsey Helman: infrastructure strategy at

Lindsey Helman: Google.

Lindsey Helman: Listen in as they discuss what investors should know about the

Lindsey Helman: AI boom and the future of machine learning finance.

Tanya Tang: Good morning Asad, how are you?

Asad Malik: Good morning Tanya. I'm good.

Asad Malik: How are you?

Tanya Tang: I'm great.

Tanya Tang: Thank you so much for joining me at today's podcast episode.

Tanya Tang: I'm very excited to have our conversation started.

Tanya Tang: And because we're talking about something that I think it's more

Tanya Tang: than a buzzword now.

Tanya Tang: ML and AI, right?

Tanya Tang: It's been going on for quite some time, but we're going to

Tanya Tang: take a different approach and perspective about it.

Tanya Tang: And you know, with your background as leading ML finance

Tanya Tang: strategy for Google, who better to talk to than you about it?

Asad Malik: Tanya, first of all, thank.

Asad Malik: You for having me on your Financial Perspectives podcast.

Asad Malik: And I'm I hope I can share some personal views that will help

Asad Malik: our listeners think about all the recent ML funds.

Asad Malik: So it's super exciting to be here.

Tanya Tang: Great.

Tanya Tang: So let's start a little bit of a background.

Tanya Tang: You know, when we were talking before the podcast, you had

Tanya Tang: mentioned significant changes in AI and ML investment trends

Tanya Tang: since twenty twenty two.

Tanya Tang: Wow.

Tanya Tang: So long ago.

Tanya Tang: could you share a bit more about

Tanya Tang: what you think is driving these

Tanya Tang: changes?

Asad Malik: Yeah.

Asad Malik: For sure.

Asad Malik: It feels like yesterday, to be honest.

Asad Malik: It's moved so fast.

Asad Malik: I mean, AI research, it's been advancing for decades, but I

Asad Malik: think the big bang moment was really in late twenty twenty

Asad Malik: two, when millions of people got their hands on some of the most

Asad Malik: powerful large language models.

Asad Malik: Right?

Asad Malik: And maybe it was a pandemic that locked us down and we just

Asad Malik: needed someone to talk to.

Asad Malik: But with AI chatbots, you could

Asad Malik: ask questions the way you would

Asad Malik: with a human on the other end,

Asad Malik: and you'd get these detailed

Asad Malik: responses on any range of

Asad Malik: topics.

Asad Malik: even the flow of information,

Asad Malik: the way you, had this back and

Asad Malik: forth dialogue.

Asad Malik: It was the same way as if you were interacting with an expert.

Asad Malik: And then you have image

Asad Malik: generation and now video

Asad Malik: generation, which has only

Asad Malik: further captured our

Asad Malik: imagination.

Asad Malik: Like if you wanted a visual or a clip of something, you could

Asad Malik: just create it in an incredibly short amount of time.

Asad Malik: And so that massive public

Asad Malik: interest, it's really sparked

Asad Malik: this surge of investments in

Asad Malik: this area.

Asad Malik: And it's only grown since then.

Asad Malik: So the early chatbots, they were

Asad Malik: very cool, but you could still

Asad Malik: see flaws in the quality of the

Asad Malik: responses.

Asad Malik: Right.

Asad Malik: And in some cases you were getting answers that were just

Asad Malik: flat out wrong.

Asad Malik: But there was and there still is a strong belief in scaling laws

Asad Malik: that if you made the models larger, more complex, and you

Asad Malik: invested more in the computational power behind them,

Asad Malik: you could create an even better model, something that was more

Asad Malik: accurate and helpful.

Asad Malik: And so you take that belief in

Asad Malik: scaling laws with some notion of

Asad Malik: monetization at the end of the

Asad Malik: rainbow, and you get billions of

Asad Malik: dollars now being poured into

Asad Malik: this industry.

Tanya Tang: So I'd love to get your thoughts

Tanya Tang: on all the funding going on into

Tanya Tang: this industry.

Tanya Tang: And, you know, what are the

Tanya Tang: areas investors should keep an

Tanya Tang: eye on?

Asad Malik: Yeah, that's.

Asad Malik: Actually a really important question.

Asad Malik: I mean, we talked about scaling laws.

Asad Malik: you need to grow compute

Asad Malik: infrastructure to improve large

Asad Malik: language models and create more

Asad Malik: helpful products.

Asad Malik: So that's number one.

Asad Malik: Number two, you also need

Asad Malik: investments in infrastructure to

Asad Malik: serve those products to the

Asad Malik: consumers, right.

Asad Malik: This is the capacity you need to

Asad Malik: bring that model to billions of

Asad Malik: users.

Asad Malik: And then number three, you need the talent to implement all this

Asad Malik: and drive progress.

Asad Malik: So when you add all those three

Asad Malik: up you get these really

Asad Malik: expensive builds.

Asad Malik: And I think the industry as a whole is likely spending around

Asad Malik: four x this year than what it did back in twenty twenty three.

Asad Malik: Building all this infrastructure also takes time.

Asad Malik: So the investments in growth you

Asad Malik: see today are still constrained

Asad Malik: since the demand showed up

Asad Malik: yesterday.

Asad Malik: But you can tell from the large

Asad Malik: project and some of the deal

Asad Malik: announcements that this is only

Asad Malik: going to continue growing in the

Asad Malik: future.

Asad Malik: Another area for investors to

Asad Malik: observe, I think, is that the

Asad Malik: leading companies in this field,

Asad Malik: at different stages of the AI

Asad Malik: economic chain, they're trying

Asad Malik: to become more vertically

Asad Malik: integrated.

Asad Malik: So some are already there, but basically it means that you own

Asad Malik: the infrastructure, the chip development, the research and

Asad Malik: the end products.

Asad Malik: That's a very important way of integration that helps you drive

Asad Malik: efficiencies at scale.

Asad Malik: So given all these billions of investments, the expectations

Asad Malik: from the industry are certainly very, very high.

Asad Malik: And so this is my view.

Asad Malik: And I'm borrowing from leaders from the industry that are much

Asad Malik: more knowledgeable about this than I am.

Asad Malik: But I think AI is probably overhyped in the near term and

Asad Malik: significantly underappreciated in the long term.

Asad Malik: Right?

Asad Malik: Like the model improvement, the product development, and more

Asad Malik: importantly, just adoption within the industry and

Asad Malik: consumers, it will take time.

Asad Malik: But all that said, I think AI is

Asad Malik: still one of the most

Asad Malik: significant transformations of

Asad Malik: our lifetime.

Asad Malik: There's a lot to be excited about.

Asad Malik: And so for investors, you really

Asad Malik: have to strike that balance

Asad Malik: between being bold but also

Asad Malik: responsible.

Tanya Tang: I appreciate all that feedback.

Tanya Tang: I totally agree with you.

Tanya Tang: And I could see exactly where you're coming from.

Tanya Tang: you know, in your opinion, what

Tanya Tang: are some of the most promising

Tanya Tang: products currently being

Tanya Tang: developed in the AI space that

Tanya Tang: you could see Reshape

Tanya Tang: industries?

Asad Malik: Yeah, there's a lot of promising

Asad Malik: products being developed at the

Asad Malik: moment, and I think some of the

Asad Malik: most exciting ones, in my

Asad Malik: opinion, are really in number

Asad Malik: one drug discovery, number two

Asad Malik: in automation.

Asad Malik: And number three, I would say general productivity.

Asad Malik: So if you look at drug discovery, the process today

Asad Malik: relies heavily on lab experiments like these can take

Asad Malik: over a decade and about three billion dollars on average to

Asad Malik: bring a new drug to the market.

Asad Malik: AI could accelerate that by ten x, and that's very exciting.

Asad Malik: And you can expand that to

Asad Malik: general scientific research as

Asad Malik: well, like the amount of PhD

Asad Malik: hours it takes to make

Asad Malik: breakthroughs could be

Asad Malik: dramatically reduced.

Asad Malik: And the outcomes for that for the industry and also humanity

Asad Malik: as a whole are just incredible.

Asad Malik: Number two, I would say automation.

Asad Malik: So you have these predictive models and there are a range of

Asad Malik: industries that will benefit from these models that improve

Asad Malik: automation and drive significant change in processes.

Asad Malik: So, for example, being able to forecast customer demand, being

Asad Malik: able to predict when things will fail, improve quality control,

Asad Malik: detect fraud and so much more.

Asad Malik: I think this is going to hugely

Asad Malik: revamp how a lot of industries

Asad Malik: think about their operations

Asad Malik: today.

Asad Malik: And number three, I would say general productivity.

Asad Malik: So writing code, creating

Asad Malik: spreadsheets, putting together

Asad Malik: presentations.

Asad Malik: There's so much time that goes into that.

Asad Malik: You have a rough idea of the output you're looking for, but

Asad Malik: you need to go through steps of one to one hundred to get there.

Asad Malik: So having AI that can help you skip most of those basic steps

Asad Malik: involved is really going to unlock a lot of our time that we

Asad Malik: can spend thinking more about the analysis or the end product.

Asad Malik: And so there's a lot more that I haven't covered, but these are

Asad Malik: some of the most important ones from my perspective.

Tanya Tang: I think that's a really fantastic feedback.

Tanya Tang: you know, these are great

Tanya Tang: sectors to really look at and

Tanya Tang: and see what how AI can kind of

Tanya Tang: help, as you said, accelerate

Tanya Tang: things.

Tanya Tang: and, you know, AI has been

Tanya Tang: around for quite some time, as

Tanya Tang: we said in this podcast, but

Tanya Tang: there's still some hesitancy

Tanya Tang: from a lot of people in the

Tanya Tang: public, whether in the industry

Tanya Tang: or outside.

Tanya Tang: What advice would you give,

Tanya Tang: whether students or

Tanya Tang: professionals who are listening

Tanya Tang: in and are still hesitant to

Tanya Tang: incorporate AI into their daily

Tanya Tang: work routines?

Tanya Tang: And really, how how do you get started?

Asad Malik: Yeah, it's funny you say that

Asad Malik: because I would put myself in

Asad Malik: the hesitant professional

Asad Malik: category.

Asad Malik: Um, I'm still learning how to make the most of these new

Asad Malik: available tools as well.

Asad Malik: But I think it starts with intention and curiosity.

Asad Malik: You have to ask yourself, is

Asad Malik: there any part of what I'm doing

Asad Malik: right now that could be done

Asad Malik: with AI?

Asad Malik: Maybe if you have a sibling or

Asad Malik: your new manager with a team now

Asad Malik: reporting to you, this will

Asad Malik: sound familiar, but you almost

Asad Malik: have to retrain yourself to

Asad Malik: think from a perspective of hey,

Asad Malik: what can I delegate and get done

Asad Malik: for me?

Asad Malik: So yes, I could pull this presentation together, but can I

Asad Malik: get AI to do it for me?

Asad Malik: I could read through all these reports, but can I get AI to

Asad Malik: summarize and maybe help me focus on the most important

Asad Malik: parts of it.

Asad Malik: And I would say really try out all the available products, see

Asad Malik: what works for you.

Asad Malik: So that said, I still think it's

Asad Malik: incredibly important for

Asad Malik: students and professionals to

Asad Malik: develop their underlying core

Asad Malik: skills, right?

Asad Malik: Like, if you don't know how to code or create a research report

Asad Malik: and so on, it'll be hard for you to understand what kind of

Asad Malik: outputs you're getting from AI and how to best filter those for

Asad Malik: the final product.

Asad Malik: I'd also recommend caution on AI outputs.

Asad Malik: It's important to continue sense checking.

Asad Malik: You want to think critically

Asad Malik: about the answers that you're

Asad Malik: getting.

Asad Malik: But I think at the end of the day, really think of AI as a

Asad Malik: powerful productivity boost and intentionally find areas to

Asad Malik: leverage it and free up your time and bandwidth.

Tanya Tang: Those are really some great feedback and thank you so much

Tanya Tang: Asad for your time.

Tanya Tang: I know it's been a very busy

Tanya Tang: time for you personally, so I

Tanya Tang: really appreciate all the

Tanya Tang: insights and feedback you

Tanya Tang: provided us, and I'm sure our

Tanya Tang: listeners are going to have a

Tanya Tang: lot to take away and digest in

Tanya Tang: this episode.

Asad Malik: Awesome. Thanks, Tanya.

Lindsey Helman: Thank you to this month's guest, Asad Malik, for joining us today

Lindsey Helman: and shedding light on the evolving world of AI and machine

Lindsey Helman: learning in finance.

Lindsey Helman: Join us next time for another

Lindsey Helman: Financial Perspectives episode

Lindsey Helman: airing on the last Tuesday of

Lindsey Helman: the month.