Rightmove’s profit warning today — to paraphrase: ‘AI is going to rewire how people shop for houses in ways we don’t yet understand and can’t yet explain but we’ll going to throw money at figuring all this out and you’re paying’ — reminded us of something.
About a week ago, Jefferies tech analyst Surinder Thind reported back from a visit to last month’s Gartner’s 2025 IT Symposium in Orlando. His note’s interesting in the universe of AI sell-side research because it doesn’t talk about 13-digit hyperscaler capex and humanoid workforces. Instead, it talks about “a disconnect between business leaders’ expectations of what AI can do and reality”.
We’re going to quote at length from Thind’s note because it’s good. It starts with an observation that, without “a complete deconstruction and reimagination of the enterprise”, there are probably no quick-hit returns on investment: