The phenomenon of "AI-induced anxiety" is escalating! The current trading logic on Wall Street: as long as you are afraid of being replaced by AI, just sell first and think later.

On Wall Street, fears of artificial intelligence (AI) are growing, from small software companies to large wealth management companies, the stock prices of any company that could be disrupted by AI continue to suffer heavy losses. On Tuesday, a new wave of selling suddenly erupted: an unknown startup company Altruist Corp launched a tax strategy tool, directly causing the stock prices of Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.US), Raymond James Financial, Inc. (RJF.US), LPL Financial (LPLA.US) and other companies to plummet by more than 7%. This was the largest single-day drop for some of these stocks since the market crashed in April last year due to the trade war. But this is just the latest manifestation of the current market's "sell first, ask questions later" mentality. With tens of billions of dollars of AI investments beginning to commercial products, the market's anxiety about the potential disruption of entire industries is escalating. John Belton, manager at Gabelli Funds, said: "Any company facing potential disruption is being indiscriminately sold off." Over the past few years, AI breakthroughs have been the focus of Wall Street, with tech stocks leading the way. While this wave pushed stock indices to historical highs, there has always been a question: is this a bubble about to burst, or a key force that will spark a productivity revolution and reshape the landscape of American business? But starting last week, a series of AI products hitting the market has led to a sharp change in market sentiment. Investors are no longer focused on picking AI winners, but are rapidly withdrawing to avoid any company, no matter how slight the risk of being replaced. Will Rhind, CEO of Graniteshares consulting firm, admitted: "I have no idea what will happen next." "Last year's logic was that we all believed in AI, but were still looking for applications," he said, "and as we continue to discover that AI applications are becoming more powerful and compelling, disruption follows." The software industry has long been shrouded in AI anxiety. Last week, when AI company Anthropic launched new tools, stocks in software, financial services, asset management, legal services, and other sectors plummeted, spreading AI panic to other industries. On Monday, after online platform Insurify launched a car insurance comparison app based on ChatGPT, American insurance broker stocks also suffered heavy losses. On Tuesday, wealth management stocks became the next "sacrificial lambs," triggered by the launch of Altruist's product Hazel - a tool that helps financial advisors customize personalized strategies for clients. Jason Wenk, CEO of Altruist, acknowledged that he was surprised by the stock market's violent reaction, with the market value of several investment institutions evaporating by tens of billions of dollars as a result. But he believes that this underscores the competitive threat posed by his company. "People are realizing that the technology architecture we used to build Hazel is capable of replacing any position in the wealth management industry," he said in an interview, "these jobs typically require an entire team to complete, while in the future, AI can efficiently handle them for just $100 a month." AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have already established a foothold in the software engineering field with products that assist in writing and debugging code, and are rapidly penetrating other industries. However, there are still many questions about how this technology will ultimately be adopted. In the banking industry, for example, technologies such as cryptocurrency and electronic services have challenged its dominance many times, but ultimately failed to shake it. Belton and others at Gabelli are skeptical of Wall Street's shift from worrying about an AI bubble to fearing its imminent disruption of a wide range of economic sectors. "Each industry will have winners and losers," Belton said, but he also emphasized, "a rule of thumb is that the actual implementation of technological disruption often takes longer than expected." This round of pullback also reflects the general anxiety in the market: over the past few years, driven by the AI investment boom and the unexpectedly resilient US economy, the stock market has soared, valuations have been pushed up, and investors are highly sensitive to any signals of reversal. Rhind of Graniteshares said: "As long as there is the slightest negative movement in the market, stock prices can plummet by 10%, which is impossible in a market with normal valuations." For Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki, the AI "elimination anxiety" that has swept the market over the past week is premature. He believes that it is too early to assert what kind of impact AI will ultimately have. "We can try to speculate about the world in the AI era five years from now, but we actually know nothing," he said, "the AI revolution is still in its early stages, but the market is eager to make premature judgments."