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Goldman Sachs<\/a> reported its first-quarter earnings on Monday and surprised analysts with a standout showing. Profits at the Wall Street giant surged 28% from a year ago, bolstered by a 32% rise in investment banking fees. In the company\u2019s follow-up conference call with analysts, CEO David Solomon provided some color about the growth in Goldman\u2019s business\u2014and his comments were likely well received by AI bulls.<\/p>\n He noted Goldman is already working with clients to discuss how\u2014and when\u2014the new technology will impact their businesses, the labor market, or the regulatory landscape. Solomon also said that over the longer term, he believes there will be significant demand for AI-related reorganizations and infrastructure projects, and therefore financing, which will be a tailwind for Goldman\u2019s business.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI actually think there\u2019s a very, very constructive runway of opportunity sets for us with our clients as people reposition their businesses\u2014and we\u2019re talking about a level of scale that is candidly unprecedented,\u201d he told analysts. \u201cI think that opportunity is \u2026 not a quarter-to-quarter thing\u2014this is over the next five to 10 years\u2014and we\u2019re very, very focused on it and very engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n Solomon also noted that it\u2019s not just companies driving the rise of AI, as governments are getting involved in a big way, \u201cmaking enormous investments in bringing infrastructure into their locales.\u201d<\/p>\n Government spending on AI is something that tech bulls like Erika Klauer, a technology equity portfolio manager at Jennison Associates, previously told Fortune<\/em><\/a> will help boost a few key AI-linked stocks for years to come. \u201c[Nation-states] would like to have their own version of ChatGPT, with training on their own languages \u2026 their own archives, their own cultural nuances,\u201d she explained last month. \u201cAnd so those governments are coming to search out their own AI initiatives\u2014and that is an extraordinary opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n The opportunities within AI are so huge\u2014and so widely talked about\u2014that analysts asked Goldman\u2019s Solomon about comparisons to the dotcom era of the late \u201990s and early 2000s on the firm\u2019s conference call Monday.<\/p>\n The CEO refused to comment on that comparison, but he did note that large tech companies are dominating the AI run so far. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of stock market capitalization that is being driven by big platforms that have an enormous competitive advantage around the scaling of these technologies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Solomon also said that Goldman, like most major corporations, is expanding its use of AI in-house. The CEO sees \u201cenormous opportunities\u201d for productivity and efficiency gains at the company resulting from AI, but \u201clike with any emerging technology, a thoughtful approach and keen eye on risk management will be crucial,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The risks of using AI were also on fellow CEO Walter Bettinger II\u2019s mind as he answered analysts\u2019 questions on Charles Schwab\u2019s conference call Monday. He believes AI is a huge opportunity for the economy, his clients, and his business, but there are serious risks to take into account\u2014like AI\u2019s tendency to hallucinate\u2014and the hype may be a bit overdone.<\/p>\n Companies, particularly financial companies, will have a lot of work to do with regulators before they can use AI \u201cwithout inherent biases you sometimes see,\u201d according to Bettinger.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you switch over to something like generative AI, I think it\u2019s going to be a while to watch that technology mature. I know that may not match some of the hype that we hear some speaking of, but I think that technology will need to mature,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to the CFO Daily newsletter to keep up with the trends, issues, and executives shaping corporate finance. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n