Goldman launches 'No AI Mention' index for firms still selling actual products

# Goldman launches 'No AI Mention' index for firms still selling actual products

“Companies seeking inclusion must also certify that at least 70% of their revenue comes from products or services that could, in principle, be accidentally dropped on a customer’s foot.”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc has created a new equity benchmark tracking U.S. companies that have not mentioned artificial intelligence in any public communication for at least 90 days and still derive the majority of revenue from physical goods, according to a client note seen by reporters.

The "Goldman Sachs No AI Mention Actual Economy Index" will initially cover 42 members of the S&P 500, representing roughly 3.7% of the index’s market capitalization but an estimated 88.4% of its “objects you can physically touch,” the note said.

The index screens earnings calls, investor presentations, regulatory filings and verified CEO social media posts for terms including "AI," "machine learning," "large language model" and 217 related phrases, according to a methodology document.

Companies are immediately removed if they use any prohibited term in the presence of an investor relations representative, or if more than 11.3% of a slide deck is devoted to images of neon brains, circuit boards or glowing network diagrams.

“Clients have been asking how to get exposure to companies that still have to ship something heavier than a PDF,” said Laura Mendel, head of U.S. equity strategy at Goldman Sachs, in an interview.

In an internal memo, Goldman instructed analysts to add a “rhetorical risk premium” when valuing firms whose CEOs mention AI more than 12 times per prepared remarks, noting that such stocks had underperformed by an annualized 17.2 percentage points during periods of what it called “AI derangement syndrome.”

The index arrives as S&P 500 executives increasingly recalibrate their messaging: in the most recent full earnings season, 96% of CEOs referenced AI at least twice, with 14 using the term more than 80 times per call, according to data compiled by Goldman.

Since the index was announced internally this month, two large industrial companies have reportedly rewritten forthcoming remarks to replace “AI” with phrases such as “advanced calculator workflows” and “responsible spreadsheeting,” a person familiar with the matter said.

Companies seeking inclusion must also certify that at least 70% of their revenue comes from products or services that could, in principle, be accidentally dropped on a customer’s foot, according to the methodology.

To reduce the risk of misclassification, Goldman plans random site visits where junior analysts verify the presence of forklifts, pallets or uncompressed cardboard boxes, and reconcile these observations with reported earnings before intangibles.

Goldman is preparing an exchange-traded fund based on the index, tentatively labeled NOAI, and a series of structured notes whose coupons step up for each full minute an executive completes on an earnings call without referencing AI, according to people briefed on the plans.

Separately, the bank is testing a volatility gauge dubbed the AIX, designed to track intraday swings in the frequency of AI mentions across the S&P 500, with a backtest suggesting it would have peaked in May when one chipmaker used the term 41 times in a 27-minute segment.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote that the product could serve as a “hedge against the narrative concentration risk” now embedded in large-cap U.S. equities, but warned that the pool of qualifying companies may shrink as AI is embedded in supply chains by default.

Goldman’s index committee said it will review the rules annually and may introduce a “heritage economy” sub-index for firms that still use fax machines, conduct inventory by clipboards, or express IT strategies without resorting to any acronyms.

Future iterations could also require constituents to demonstrate at least one functioning factory or warehouse per $10 million of revenue and submit to an independent “actual product audit,” with findings disclosed in basis points of tangible mass per share.

---

**Pull quote:** Companies seeking inclusion must also certify that at least 70% of their revenue comes from products or services that could, in principle, be accidentally dropped on a customer’s foot.

**Caption:**

**Source:** https://fortune.com/2026/02/27/stocks-battered-by-ai-derangement-syndrome/