Artificial intelligence (AI) comes in many forms. Generative AI, specifically, is capable of creating content whether it be text, images, videos, or even computer code, and it's capturing the most attention this year thanks to chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet's Google Bard.
It's already having a positive impact on the productivity of many businesses, but the estimated value of its long-term benefits is staggering even at the low end. Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. thinks generative AI will add $13 trillion to global economic output by 2030, whereas Cathie Wood's Ark Investment Management places that number at a whopping $200 trillion.
Investors are already capturing some of that value with shares in companies like Nvidia, C3.ai, and Microsoft surging this year. But I'll reveal five other companies using generative AI to supercharge their growth potential -- and you can buy into them right now.
1. SentinelOne
Generative AI has recently found a home in the cybersecurity industry, as many bad actors are launching attacks on networks by using powerful AI tools of their own. SentinelOne (S +3.26%) is fighting fire with fire; the company says machines can pinpoint and respond to cyber threats much faster than humans, so it has embedded AI across its portfolio of products to automate its customers' cybersecurity activities.
NYSE: S
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SentinelOne's Singularity platform protects the cloud, user identities, and endpoints (among other things), and the company just took its AI-powered approach to the next level by introducing a chatbot called Purple AI. It will allow cybersecurity managers to hunt for specific threats and identify potential vulnerabilities using prompts, in a similar manner to the way users converse with ChatGPT.
Plus, as a generative AI application, Purple AI can automatically create summaries of attacks and breaches to save managers time they'd usually spend problem solving. This also solves "alert fatigue" for managers, which is common in the cybersecurity industry given the sheer volume of threats identified on a daily basis.
SentinelOne has faced challenges this year, but its business is still growing at a lightning-fast pace. Its stock is down more than 80% from its all-time high, but that might be a great opportunity for investors to buy in for the long term.
2. Lemonade
Nobody really enjoys dealing with their insurance company. Lemonade (LMND 2.57%) has developed a powerful generative AI strategy to make the ordeal relatively painless and fast. In fact, chatbots handle every customer interaction from writing a quote to autonomously paying out claims in just minutes.
Lemonade offers five products -- renters insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, pet insurance, and car insurance -- but its portfolio is almost certain to expand in the future. The company has attracted 1.8 million customers so far, the majority of whom have switched from larger traditional insurers.
Lemonade's use of AI doesn't stop at the customer experience. It also uses the technology to price premiums, which it says is a more accurate approach. Plus, its latest Lifetime Value 7 (LTV7) AI model is capable of predicting which customers will buy multiple policies, which customers are likely to switch insurers, and which products and geographic markets are under or overperforming. Combined, this information helps Lemonade maximize its revenue.
Speaking of which, the company's revenue more than doubled in the recent first quarter of 2023, yet it has still barely scratched the surface of its opportunity. Lemonade currently has $653 million in in-force premiums, but the opportunity in the U.S. car insurance industry alone was worth a whopping $327 billion last year. Lemonade's appeal to customers will likely only grow over time, especially as it gears up to release its LTV8 model this year, which is expected to be even more accurate.
3. Duolingo
Education is another area where generative AI is adding enormous value, and as the world's go-to provider for digital language lessons, Duolingo (DUOL 2.31%) is positioned perfectly to lead the charge. Over 500 million people have downloaded the company's mobile application, and 72.6 million of them use it every month. Each day, users complete more than 1 billion lessons, which gives Duolingo a treasure trove of data with which to train AI models.
NASDAQ: DUOL
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Duolingo has experimented with AI since 2013, but that effort was supercharged by a more recent partnership with OpenAI. ChatGPT now powers a couple of new, exciting features for paid subscribers: Roleplay, which enables users to chat with an AI bot to improve their conversational skills, and Explain My Answer, which provides personalized feedback to users based on their mistakes in each language lesson.
But OpenAI's new GPT-4 technology has been a game changer. Duolingo is using it to craft entire lessons within seconds, freeing up some of its most talented employees to spend more time focusing on creating new features for the platform.
Duolingo stock has nearly doubled in 2023 on the back of strong first-quarter results, where its paying subscriber base surged 63% and its revenue came in comfortably higher than its prior forecast. Here's the good news for investors: Duolingo stock is still down more than 30% from its all-time high, and if the company continues to perform at a high level, it will almost certainly reclaim that mark (and will likely exceed it in the long run).
4. Redfin
The seemingly endless search for the ideal home to buy could become a thing of the past thanks to AI-powered chatbots, and real estate technology company Redfin (RDFN +0.00%) is already experimenting with the technology.
Redfin has built a plug-in for ChatGPT, which also works with the new-look Microsoft Bing (because it runs on ChatGPT). Users can type in the specifications of their dream home -- like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, their ideal price range, and location -- and the chatbot will retrieve all relevant listings from Redfin's website. Users can even prompt it further to refine the results. No more endless scrolling!
Redfin has suffered through a tough 12-month period with rising interest rates stifling demand for homes. It decided to close its RedfinNow iBuying (direct buying) segment in 2022, because it risked losing significant amounts of money on its inventory of homes. That business made up about half of the company's total revenue, so investors are now trying to determine where its new baseline is.
But there's good news. Redfin is focusing on its capital-light businesses; it has one of the largest brokerage businesses in America, covering 98% of the population, and it also has a booming mortgage business. By ditching iBuying, the company thinks it can even achieve profitability on an adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) basis this year. With Redfin stock down about 87% from its all-time high, it might be a great time to buy into the turnaround story.
5. Opera
The last generative AI stock on this list is Opera (OPRA +1.68%). It's already up a whopping 265% in 2023 as it came into the year quite undervalued relative to many other AI stocks like Nvidia, especially because the company is delivering solid growth, it's profitable, and it's even returning money to shareholders mainly through stock buybacks. Opera has developed a unique internet browser with more built-in features than any of its competitors and, of course, a comprehensive suite of AI tools.
NASDAQ: OPRA
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Opera has created a generative AI chatbot in-house called Aria, which is capable of holding conversations, answering complex questions, writing social media posts, and even generating computer code. Tools like Aria can increase productivity by reducing users' need to constantly visit search engines and sift through web pages. But if that wasn't enough, Opera has also integrated ChatGPT into its browser, so users have two advanced AI bots at their fingertips.
Like most internet companies, the company primarily monetizes its users through digital advertising. The company's 2023 first-quarter revenue jumped 21% year over year, but its free cash flow more than doubled thanks to a more conservative approach to spending by management in the face of this tough economic environment.
Based on Opera's $390 million in expected revenue for 2023, its stock trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of about 7. That's much cheaper than other AI software plays like C3.ai, which trades at a P/S ratio of 16. And it's considerably cheaper than Nvidia, given its P/S ratio of more than 40. As a result, there's a good case for buying Opera stock right now despite its enormous run this year already.
