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Hello, Reader.
Vines are often a visual symbol of overgrowth. They can wrap around a building’s exterior, growing and clinging to worn, cracked stone, creating fractures that let further destruction in.
In a similar way, AI is gradually weaving itself into daily life — reshaping how we research, how businesses operate, and ultimately how markets are structured.
That shift is accelerating with the rise of agentic AI, or what I call A-AI: systems capable of independently completing tasks, making decisions, and executing workflows with minimal human involvement.
We’re already seeing agentic AI’s vine-like tentacles reaching into critical areas, including financial institutions.
But overgrowth isn’t always destructive. Sometimes, it signals transformation.
Last week, both Anthropic and OpenAI announced plans to deploy agentic AI specifically for financial services.
OpenAI announced its collaboration with accounting firm PwC to build AI agents aimed at streamlining processes and meeting increasing demands in financial services. OpenAI says the goal is to build AI systems that can automate repetitive financial work, analyze information across multiple platforms, and help human teams make faster decisions.
By combining Codex and Workspace Agents with PwC’s finance expertise, OpenAI plans to roll out AI systems that can handle complex tasks across departments. The AI company presents this as a practical strategy for applying AI in real-world scenarios.
For its part, Anthropic announced the creation of 10 new AI agents specifically designed for banks and financial services companies. These agents will handle basic financial tasks like drafting credit memos and building pitchbooks.
Jonathan Pelosi, who leads Anthropic’s financial services division, says the company wants to narrow the gap between rapid AI development and the financial sector’s ability to adopt the technology effectively.
These finance-focused AI announcements came just before Anthropic partnered with Fidelity National Information Services to create AI-driven software that helps banks monitor accounts for any signs of financial crimes, making the process more efficient and secure.
We are witnessing AI become stronger, smarter, and faster. Its vines continue to creep along walls, reshaping entire business structures – this time, in financial services.
And I’ve identified one fintech company that’s already leveraging agentic AI to its advantage in the A-AI era, which I’ll share below.
But first, let’s take a look at what we covered here at Smart Money last week.
Smart Money Roundup
May 10, 2026
Warren Buffett Can’t Make This Trade. You Can.
For nearly 50 years, quant investing legend Louis Navellier has built his reputation by identifying fast-growing companies before Wall Street fully catches on. Lately, Louis has been focused on one area of the market he believes could become especially important over the next several years: smaller-cap growth stocks positioned to benefit from a new Fed cycle and expanding AI-driven infrastructure spending.
May 9, 2026
3 AI Stocks to Buy Immediately
There are still a handful of companies that look like Nvidia in late 2022 and SK Hynix in mid-2025. These firms produce crucial AI data center components and are underpriced simply because Wall Street hasn’t yet realized what shortages are about to happen from AI data center demand. Click here to learn more.
May 7, 2026
This Tiny AI Stock Exploded Higher… Here’s How to Spot the Next One
The biggest future AI winners will likely be smaller, under-the-radar infrastructure companies solving real bottlenecks before Wall Street fully notices them – similar to how Bloom Energy quietly surged more than 1,100% as AI data-center power demand exploded.
Louis Navellier says the key is finding companies with improving fundamentals and early institutional buying before the broader market catches on to the next phase of the AI buildout. Read more here.
May 6, 2026
Xerox Is an AI Trap — This Company Is a Better “Match”
In this Wednesday Smart Money, we’re looking at a stock that highlights the limits of legacy tech companies struggling to adapt as A-AI accelerates. Then, I’ll break down an AI Applier that is successfully leveraging A-AI to strengthen its core business and gain a competitive advantage. Read on here.
How to Profit From A-AI
Block Inc. (XYZ) helps merchants transact over $200 billion annually. Its point-of-sale systems are found everywhere from farmers’ markets to national retail chains.
Thanks to Block’s sizable multi-year spending on both capital investments and acquisitions, the company has become one of the world’s leading fintech companies.
And the company has expanded to:
- Peer-to-peer payments
- Small business software
- Buy now, pay later
- E-commerce
- Crypto
And now, AI.
Block recently made a controversial decision to cut a large portion of its workforce while aggressively adopting AI tools internally
Three months after that high-profile layoff announcement, Block reported gross-profit growth accelerating to 27% from 24%. First-quarter gross profit reached $2.9 billion, topping Wall Street expectations of $2.8 billion.
Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said that growth was driven in part by the company’s ability to develop and launch products more quickly.
And its internal AI tools are speeding up this workflow. The company’s open-source AI agent framework, called Goose, helps employees automate work and workflows.
Block has been prepared for this agentic AI shift.
Back in December, Block, OpenAI, and Anthropic, along with several other big tech players, launched the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) under the Linux Foundation. The group was created to help companies build open-source AI agents that can work together using shared standards.
And the idea is for AI agents from different companies to work together using shared rules and protocols, similar to how the internet runs on open standards.
Anthropic contributed MCP (Model Context Protocol), which helps AI agents connect to tools and data. OpenAI contributed AGENTS.md, a format that tells coding agents how to behave inside software projects. And Block contributed Goose.
The next wave of AI winners will be the companies reorganizing themselves around AI agents.
Block is trying to position itself as one of the first major companies built around that model.
But it isn’t the only one I’ve identified.
Regards,
Eric Fry
P.S. A new Fed regime is taking shape, and on May 13 at 1 p.m. Eastern, Louis Navellier will break down why this shift could trigger the next major wave of stock market winners. He’s identified 53 under-the-radar stocks already attracting institutional money… and when you sign up, you’ll get the full list, along with a free pick during his presentation.
