Baillie Gifford says AI can support research, but human insight and strong relationships with company leaders remain essential to its investment edge. The team is focused on long-term structural themes like energy transition and healthcare innovation heading into 2026.
As a group, how have you been boosting your investment capabilities, including taking advantage of technological advances in areas like AI?
Our competitive edge as investors lies in the differentiated perspectives we take on structural trends and company growth opportunities, as well as the deep relationships we cultivate with management teams. Therefore, our people, who embody these principles, remain our greatest asset. On company relationships specifically, these are essential in enabling us to understand not just what businesses do, but how management teams think, adapt, and pursue long-term value creation. Regular, meaningful conversations allow us to engage on strategy, capital allocation, and stakeholder approaches, all of which are material over our investment horizon. These human connections and insights can't be replicated by AI, regardless of its sophistication.
We view AI as a useful tool that can supplement rather than replace human judgment, while helping our investors perform their core investment activities more efficiently. AI excels at absorbing and analysing vast volumes of information, therefore it can help us to understand complex areas more quickly and comprehensively. This enables our investors to research a broader range of investment opportunities while maintaining the quality and depth that defines our work.
What do you see as the big opportunities and risks for investors in 2026? How are you responding to these in a particular strategy?
We are incredibly excited about the investment opportunities in the year ahead. While negative headlines constantly compete for our attention, they can obscure the profound structural changes evolving around us. In a world where trade dynamics and geopolitical relationships can shift with a single announcement (or social media post), we see little value in attempting to predict these short-term fluctuations.
Instead, we focus on structural changes that will endure for decades. Our time is best spent understanding these transformations and backing companies that are either driving or benefiting from them. When identifying the right companies to prosper in these environments, we invest considerable time understanding their business models, getting to know management teams, and assessing organisational culture. This rigorous approach builds our confidence that we're backing companies with strong operational fundamentals capable of delivering on their potential, regardless of external volatility.
Some specific investment opportunities our investors have been exploring recently include autonomous driving and trucking, where we're analysing how this market is maturing and assessing whether it will revolutionise a carbon-intensive industry or simply displace jobs. We've also been evaluating the role of stablecoins in digital payments and their potential to transform global payment systems. Additionally, we've been examining whether China is surpassing the US as the leading innovator in drug development.
What are your priorities as an asset manager for the year ahead?
We think in decades rather than years - a philosophy enabled by Baillie Gifford's private partnership structure. Our fundamental priorities remain constant: delivering attractive long-term returns by investing in companies with exceptional growth prospects that contribute toward a more sustainable and inclusive world.
While politics and trade disputes dominate headlines in the short-term, stepping back reveals where the real opportunities lie. The world's fundamental challenges haven't disappeared. The transition to sustainable energy, breakthroughs in healthcare, expanding financial inclusion in the world's most underserved regions, and improvements in education represent multi-decade structural growth themes that transcend political cycles. These are economic necessities driving enormous demand, not pipedreams.
Once we identify and invest in companies addressing these challenges, we embrace our role as long-term owners. Given the constant news flow and increasingly short investor time horizons, company leaders can become distracted or tempted to prioritise quarterly earnings over long-term strategy. Therefore, we build deep relationships with management teams to understand their ambitions, assess their progress, and demonstrate our patience and support. Our investor contribution matters.
