Insight Post

Adam Rich, Deputy CIO at Vaughan Nelson, joins the podcast for Vaughan Nelson’s newest series - Winners & Warnings - AI: First-Order Fears, Second-Order Opportunities. In this episode, we explore artificial intelligence through a capital allocation lens. While much of the public debate centers on automation and labor displacement, history suggests the more durable wealth creation occurs in the second phase of technological change — when companies reorganize their systems around a newly relaxed constraint. Drawing parallels to railroads, electrification, and the internet, we examine how first-order infrastructure investment differs from second-order innovation — and what capital allocation signals may define the next era of market leadership.