Energy, Healthcare and Utilities: How to Tap Into AI in the Real Economy
•February 2, 2026
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Companies Mentioned
Why It Matters
AI’s deployment in high‑impact sectors translates massive capital spend into tangible productivity and revenue growth, reshaping investment opportunities across the market. Recognising and accessing these exposure points can give investors a strategic edge as AI becomes a core operating lever.
Key Takeaways
- •AI shortens drug discovery cycles, boosting biotech productivity.
- •Robotics and brain‑interface tech reshape surgical and diagnostic care.
- •AI data‑centres drive higher electricity consumption, aiding utilities.
- •Energy sector valuations may under‑price geopolitical and supply risks.
- •ETFs and trusts offer targeted exposure to AI‑enabled sectors.
Pulse Analysis
The healthcare and biotech landscape is being reengineered by artificial intelligence, turning data overload into actionable insight. Machine‑learning models sift through molecular libraries to pinpoint promising compounds, cutting years off traditional R&D timelines and reducing costly trial failures. Simultaneously, AI‑driven robotics, exemplified by Intuitive Surgical’s platforms, enhance precision in operating rooms, while neural interface ventures like Neuralink promise new therapeutic pathways. These advances not only improve patient outcomes but also generate robust earnings streams for companies that successfully integrate AI, making sector‑focused trusts attractive vehicles for long‑term investors.
On the energy side, the proliferation of AI data centres is creating a parallel surge in electricity demand, directly benefiting utilities and traditional power generators. As AI workloads expand globally, grid operators face higher baseload requirements, prompting infrastructure upgrades and renewable integration to meet reliability standards. Yet many analysts argue that current energy sector valuations overlook heightened geopolitical tensions and potential supply chain disruptions, suggesting a pricing gap that savvy investors can exploit. Sector ETFs such as iShares’ S&P 500 Energy and Utilities funds provide a streamlined route to capture this upside while diversifying exposure across established utilities and emerging clean‑energy assets.
For portfolio construction, blending AI‑centric healthcare trusts with energy‑focused ETFs offers a balanced approach to capture both the demand‑side and supply‑side dynamics of the AI revolution. Investors should assess each vehicle’s discount to sector averages, historical return track records, and exposure to emerging technologies like robotic surgery or AI‑optimized grid management. By aligning capital with firms that stand to benefit from AI‑driven efficiency gains and rising power consumption, investors position themselves to ride the next wave of productivity growth across the real economy.
Energy, healthcare and utilities: how to tap into AI in the real economy
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the dominant theme across the stock market
The biggest firms in the S&P 500 are mostly heavily involved in building the hardware and software that underpins AI technology.
The long‑term promise of AI, though, can’t be restricted to exchanges of capital between the big tech companies. To justify the amounts that are being spent on AI data centres, AI is going to have to deliver real‑world benefits.
“As many markets, from the US to Taiwan and Korea, continue to focus heavily on the obvious AI supply chain exposure, we are tilting towards sectors that stand to benefit from the continued roll‑out of AI in the real economy,” he added.
As AI’s impact broadens beyond tech, which are the real‑world sectors most likely to be positively impacted by AI? And what is the best way for investors to gain exposure to them?
Healthcare and biotech
Healthcare and biotech have long been touted as sectors that are perfectly positioned to benefit from AI. They are data‑intensive, but also labour‑constrained; a combination that AI thrives upon.
At present, drug discovery is one of the sector’s key bottlenecks. It can take years for new drugs to go through the clinical trial process, and there is a high failure rate at every stage, but AI‑discovered treatments have the potential to accelerate drug development timelines.
“Major healthcare companies are starting to report reductions in the time taken to carry out data processing, including regulatory filings and drug testing procedure documents, whilst healthcare providers are moving to better diagnostics and giving more joined‑up care to patients,” said Flintoft.
Advances like these could be the tip of the iceberg as far as healthcare is concerned. Companies like Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) are already bringing advances in robotics into surgical theatres, while Elon Musk’s brain‑interface start‑up Neuralink offers the startling potential of computer‑brain interfaces in the foreseeable future.
Investors looking for an investment trust to tap into AI‑driven healthcare trends can select the Worldwide Healthcare Trust (LON: WWH) or Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust (LON: PCGH), both of which trade at below the sector’s average discount and have generated share‑price returns of 133 % and 176 % respectively in the 10 years to 29 January (according to the Association of Investment Companies).
Utilities and energy
Another real‑world theme set to be boosted by AI is energy demand. In some respects this is the other end of the value chain from healthcare; while AI companies are set to supply healthcare companies, they are reliant on increasing their energy consumption to do so.
“Utilities and the energy sector look set to benefit from rising energy demands globally as the building of AI datacentres continues apace,” said Flintoft. “Rising geopolitical risks and possible supply chain disruption does not look to be well appreciated in energy sector valuations, nor does the longevity and strategic importance of traditional oil and gas assets.”
Flintoft identified the iShares S&P 500 Energy Sector ETF (LON: IESU) and the iShares S&P 500 Utilities Sector ETF (LON: IUSU) as vehicles to access this theme.
You can read more on how to tap into AI energy stocks in our article.
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