Fund information

The Fund has performed poorly as recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) lead to a swift and disorderly market reappraisal of several sectors. Software companies were especially roughly treated. AI agents are already automating software creation and look set to transform other types of white-collar work. We do not doubt that AI technology will continue to improve and proliferate throughout the economy, bringing with it profound change. Equally, we wonder about the pace of change and how evenly it is distributed.

Intuit is illustrative of our thinking. On the surface, Intuit’s mundane and repetitive world of consumer tax preparation and small business financial management software appears eminently well-suited to autonomous AI agents. New competitors can be expected. But the question then becomes, who is best placed to deliver this agentic vision of the future? On closer inspection, new entrants cannot quickly replicate Intuit’s tremendous advantages – well-known and trusted brands, embedded customer relationships, deep domain expertise, and proprietary data at scale. Moreover, Intuit’s customers are naturally cautious because errors in tax prep, accounting, payroll and payments are expensive and time consuming. Intuit is entrusted to give customers peace of mind and get the job done – quickly, accurately and safely, at a tiny fraction of the annual cost of running a household or business. Customers are not eagerly seeking alternatives, but Intuit does not take them for granted. Over the past seven years, the company has invested heavily into AI, long before it became a business imperative. Intuit’s products increasingly automate their customers’ tasks, saving precious time and money, whilst accelerating the company’s growth. This positive trajectory is starkly at odds with Intuit’s own share price, and a valuation that has fallen to multi-year lows.

We see opportunity in this period of uncertainty and dislocation. In the ongoing process of reviewing all the Fund’s holdings through the lens of AI disruption, we strongly favour innovative companies, such as Intuit, with hard-to-replicate assets that sell to regulated and risk-averse customers. We added to the Fund’s holding in Intuit during the month, together with Experian and RELX.