Investing has never been easier to enter or harder to filter. An investor can now research a company, compare opportunities, analyze financial statements, follow market sentiment, and ask artificial intelligence to challenge an investment thesis without leaving a laptop. Information that once required teams of analysts can increasingly be accessed in seconds.
That should be creating a generation of extraordinarily informed investors. But access to more information is not the same as knowing what deserves your trust. An April 2026 FINRA Investor Education Foundation analysis of 2024 survey data found that retail investors who used social media for investment information answered an average of just 42 percent of questions correctly on an objective investment knowledge test, even though 63 percent rated their investment knowledge as high.
Meanwhile, PwC’s Global Investor Survey 2025 found that 34 percent of the 1,074 investment professionals surveyed relied on generative AI to a large or very large extent when assessing how companies manage risks and opportunities. The tools are becoming more powerful. Our judgment does not automatically improve with them.
That distinction matters because modern investing increasingly rewards speed. Opportunities arrive through platforms, private networks, social media, and polished digital presentations. AI can summarize the upside in seconds.
What it cannot do is eliminate the oldest weaknesses in investing: overconfidence, impatience, fear of missing out, and our tendency to believe compelling stories. I have come to believe that the most underrated investment skill is not identifying opportunities. Long-term success depends on asking whether the numbers can be independently verified, whether incentives are aligned, whether management remains credible under scrutiny, and whether the opportunity still makes sense after the excitement is stripped away.
Due diligence is not the obstacle standing between an investor and a great opportunity. It is the protection standing between an investor and a convincing mistake. I learned this while evaluating an artificial intelligence production company with rapidly growing revenue and ambitious projections.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
