A client texted me a few weeks ago — late thirties, disciplined saver, the kind of person who actually reads their quarterly statements — and the message wasn't about her Roth IRA. It was: "Joey, should I be doing something about AI? Like, in my portfolio? Or my job? Both?" That one text pretty much summarized every conversation I've been having lately.
It's a fair question, and it deserves a straight answer. AI is genuinely changing things — the economy, the job market, the way we work. But a lot of the noise around it makes it harder, not easier, to make good decisions. So let me share how I think about it, and what I'm actually telling clients right now.
First, Let's Talk About Long-Term Investing. The Fundamentals Haven't Changed.
One thing has become very clear to me: the basics are boring for a reason. They work. Time in the market. Consistent contributions. Low-cost, diversified funds. Rebalancing without emotion. The clients who came out ahead through COVID market swings — and every volatile stretch since — were the ones who didn't panic, kept their automatic contributions running, and looked away from the noise. That lesson shapes everything I do.
That's still the playbook. It always will be.
The best investment strategy is almost always the boring one — diversified, low-cost, and left alone.
What changes with AI isn't the principles of investing — it's the landscape you're investing in. And that distinction matters a lot.
AI as an Investment Theme: Real, But Nuanced
There is genuine, structural economic change happening. AI is compressing the cost of knowledge work, accelerating drug discovery, reshaping logistics, and changing what it means to be productive. That is a real tailwind for certain sectors — and a real headwind for others.
But here's where I pump the brakes with clients who want to "go all in on AI stocks." I didn't live through the dot-com collapse firsthand — I was in middle school — but I've studied it enough to know the pattern. The internet was going to change everything. It did. It just also wiped out a generation of early investors who confused a real trend with a guaranteed return. The technology was right. The valuations were not. And we're seeing echoes of that tension right now.
A Grounded Framework for AI Exposure
- Hold broad market index funds — they already carry significant AI exposure through mega-cap tech weights.
- If you want targeted exposure, look at infrastructure plays: semiconductors, data center REITs, enterprise software — not just flashy consumer-facing names.
- Avoid concentrated bets on individual AI companies unless you can afford to lose it entirely.
- Think in decades. The winners of the AI era five years from now may not be the companies dominating headlines today.
- Keep position sizing honest — excitement is not an allocation strategy.
The better question isn't "which AI stock should I buy?" It's "does my portfolio have appropriate, diversified exposure to the broader technological transformation underway?" For most people, a low-cost total market or S&P 500 index fund already provides that — without requiring you to predict which specific company wins.
Now, the Career Side. This Is Where It Gets Personal.
I want to spend some time here because I think it's actually more urgent than the portfolio question for most people — and it's directly tied to financial health. Your career is your biggest asset. It generates more wealth over time than most portfolios do, especially when you're in your thirties and forties. So how AI affects your earning power matters just as much as how it affects the S&P 500.
Generative AI — the kind that writes, summarizes, analyzes, and codes — is not coming for your job wholesale. But it is coming for tasks within your job. And the people who figure out how to hand off low-value, repetitive work to AI and redirect their energy toward high-judgment, relationship-driven work? They're going to have a real edge over the next decade.
What This Looks Like in Practice
I'll be transparent: I use AI tools in my own practice. I use them to draft first passes at client summaries, pull together research quickly, and organize my notes after meetings. It lets me focus more time on what actually matters — being present with clients, thinking through their specific situation, and having the conversations that no software can replicate. But AI has never once told me what a specific client actually needs. That part is still entirely mine.
Whatever your field, the framework is the same. Find the repetitive, information-heavy, formatting-intensive work and consider whether AI can handle a first pass. Then double down on the things that require real human presence — judgment calls, difficult conversations, accountability, trust. Those are your moat, and AI makes them more valuable, not less.
AI doesn't make human judgment obsolete. It makes human judgment more valuable — because now it's all that's left that's genuinely scarce.
From a financial planning standpoint, this matters because your career is your largest asset. Most people in their 40s and 50s will generate more wealth from their remaining working years than from their current portfolio. Protecting and expanding that earning capacity is wealth management — and adapting to AI is part of that.
Bringing It Together
I keep coming back to that text from my client. She wasn't asking me to predict the future. She was asking me to help her feel less like the future was happening to her. That's the real job — not forecasting, but helping people stay grounded when everything feels uncertain.
The clients I've watched thrive — through rate hikes, market drops, and now an AI revolution — are the ones who didn't let the noise override the plan. They stayed invested. They kept contributing. They adapted their skills without abandoning their strategy.
The investors I worry about aren't the ones who don't understand AI. They're the ones who let excitement or anxiety push them into decisions they'll have to walk back later.
Build the foundation. Stay curious. Adapt without overreacting. That's the approach I bring to every client conversation at Aspire Financial Partners — and the advice I'd stand behind in any market environment.
Joey Doganieri is a financial advisor at Aspire Financial Partners. This post reflects his personal opinions and is intended for general educational purposes only. It does not constitute personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Please consult a qualified advisor before making any investment decisions.