AI is Changing How Activist Investors Value Every Company — Not Just Tech (Pensions & Investments)

Activist investors are launching campaigns demanding companies accelerate or alter their use of artificial intelligence, a trend experts say is a fundamental break from traditional activism that typically responds to poor performance or specific failures. Activists are “increasingly asking whether a company is an AI winner, an AI loser, or simply moving too slowly, and then using the answer to argue for changes in strategy costs, capital allocation, or the portfolio,” said Leonard Wood, chair of law firm Goodwin’s Shareholder Activism and Takeover Defense practice. “A substantial number of activism campaigns are now hitting technology and industrial companies, and it tells you that AI isn’t just a Silicon Valley issue for investors,” Wood said. “It’s changing how investors value everything, clearly starting from software. But it’s also influencing how they think about other industries, whether it’s power manufacturing, cooling, data infrastructure, online travel, you name it.” As AI becomes more integrated in the economy, Wood said such activist campaigns will only grow in number. “The best examples really started emerging over the course of the 2025 proxy season as activists started getting more involved in AI analysis, thinking more about it, engaging more (with) it. They’ve now had one full year or more to really process the changes in AI (and) so we expect to see more activism with an AI theme,” Wood said.

Read the Pensions & Investments article for more.