As the nights grow cooler in Western New York, it’s hard not to notice the stars. Some evenings the sky feels empty with just a few points of light. Other nights, it seems endless, speckled with thousands. In reality, of course, there are trillions out there, far too many to process. For centuries, people have made sense of the sky by connecting the dots into recognizable patterns and pictures – constellations. In our research process, we do much the same. Every day we’re flooded with information: data, news, trends, stories. On their own, these “stars” can feel random. But when we connect them, patterns emerge. Those patterns – constellations – help us navigate the investment universe and drive investment decisions.

In Volume VIII of Talking Shop, a little over two years ago, we discussed the emergence of artificial intelligence, catalyzed by the release of ChatGPT, which quickly became a viral sensation in early 2023. Since then, the pace of innovation has only accelerated. While OpenAI has continued to introduce better versions of ChatGPT, other players have introduced models such as Claude, Gemini, Grok, LLaMA, Perplexity, among others. China-based DeepSeek caused waves with the introduction of a much lower-cost model back in January. To stay at the leading edge of understanding this trend, we recently attended ServiceNow’s Knowledge 2025 conference – which was entirely dedicated to advancements in AI.

The first weeks of the Trump administration have been eventful, bringing policy shifts and economic debates. While change creates uncertainty, history shows markets adapt. Each new administration enacts changes that may seem drastic in the short term but rarely derail long-term wealth generation. The current scenario involves the threat of tariffs and the impacts of DOGE; while navigating an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape and persistent inflation.