Wall Streeters sound off on their use of AI. But the real test will be if the tech can make their firms more money.

Hello! The iPhone could reportedly get a major redesign to turn it into a…flip phone. What year are we living in?

In today's big story, dozens of Wall Street employees open up about how they are (or aren't) using AI on the job.

What's on deck:

• Markets: What a second Trump term would mean for the deficit, inflation, and yields.
• Tech: Some early-stage founders have reevaluated their startup dreams, opting for corporate life instead.
• Business: The best bet for fixing your love life might be the government. (It's not as weird as it sounds.)

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The big story

AI pulse check on Wall Street

"How are you using generative AI?"

The question has dominated the business world for almost two years. Once ChatGPT graced us with its presence, everyone wanted to know how to leverage the tech to get ahead.

Wall Street, with its reams of data and need to analyze complex topics, has always been viewed as fertile ground for the AI revolution. So Business Insider's finance team spoke with almost three dozen finance workers across the industry about how they're using AI.

From helping to identify startups to invest in to aggregating thousands of analyst notes to cutting down the time spent on busy work, AI use cases on the Street ran the gamut.

Overall, generative AI typically helped finance professionals do their jobs faster, easier, or both.

Not everyone is sold. Some don't see the "breakthrough" possibilities of the tech that so many have prophesied, finding it hard to see specific uses of AI in their own processes.

And to be fair, they might not be wrong. As much as Wall Street likes to tout tech adoption, certain corners remain unchanged from decades ago, albeit with a few extra bells and whistles.

Not unlike the workers it's looking to serve, gen AI's future on Wall Street will boil down to its ability to produce results.

AI development doesn't come cheap. Whether you're starting from scratch or buying something off the shelf, there's plenty of costs to consider, from talent to hardware to retraining staff.

Blackstone expects the US to spend roughly $1 trillion over the next five years building and facilitating new data centers that'll help power the gen AI wave.

That kind of cash means investors will want to see real changes in how things are done thanks to AI. It's a question Big Tech leaders are already fielding.

On Tuesday, Alphabet executives were pressed on whether Google's AI overview feature was generating more revenue for the firm, writes BI's Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert. And Nvidia has plans to show how its customers are making money using its AI chips when it reports earnings next month.

They won't be alone, as Goldman expects the market to keenly watch if AI spend can translate to revenue.

And that's in tech where companies are supposed to take big swings on innovative projects! Now consider Wall Street, where ROI is built into the core of the industry.

Will those firms continue pouring money into tech that can't improve their bottom line? In the end, finance workers' views on using generative AI, whatever they are, might not matter.

3 things in markets

1. How the markets are pricing in a Trump win. With prediction markets favoring former President Donald Trump winning in November, the markets are reacting accordingly. Here's how the deficit, inflation, and yields would be impacted by Trump's potential return to the White House.
2. Why the (market) party can keep going. Bank of America pointed to narrow junk-bond spreads and $6 trillion in cash as bullish indicators the market rally will continue. Even smaller-cap stocks enjoying a surge is a sign of a "broadening of the rally," BofA technical analyst Stephen Suttmeier said.
3. Small-cap stocks to buy for big gains amid rally. Historically cheap small-cap stocks are roaring back to life during a risky earnings season. But not all are in the clear, a small-cap strategist at Bank of America warned. Here are 9 stocks in sectors that should outperform.

3 things in tech

1. Founders' dreams on hold. Amid the collapse of some 3,200 venture-backed startups this year, some early-stage founders are testing out life as corporate employees for a break. Despite the better quality of life in corporate jobs, most want to someday be founders again.
2. "This is our golf course." A Hamptons retreat for female founders includes free-flowing rosé, a freebie bin of Larroudé sandals, and a speaker lineup that includes "Sex and the City" author Candace Bushnell. It's the rare sanctuary where women in business connect without men in the room.
3. Mark Zuckerberg's brat summer. Hot Zuck Summer is in full swing, both personally and professionally for the Meta founder. He won high praise for open-sourcing Meta's AI model, Llama 3.1, which he's been promoting. He also debuted a summer glow with a goggle-shaped tan line around his eyes — though he said it's not a hint about Meta's Orion AR project.

3 things in business

1. Make America date again. Dating apps are so bad that young people are giving up on them altogether. Could a government-run matchmaking service be the answer to our loneliness epidemic.
2. Group Black was supposed to even the playing field for Black-owned media. Instead, its momentum fizzled. Former staff and people close to the company blame its struggles on advertisers' broken pledges, internal disorganization, and execution stumbles. They're left wondering what its future holds.
3. Are your credit card rewards making you a jerk? Companies love rewards, and cardholders do, too. But when everyone at group dinner is rushing to put their card down first, the struggle over who gets the points can get ugly real fast.

In other news

• The elephant not in the room for Netanyahu's speech: Kamala Harris.
• Biden says the fight for democracy is bigger than him, so he decided to 'pass the torch' to Harris.
• Gen X is in charge now and boomers are being shown the door.
• Champagne sales are tanking. An LVMH exec thinks people aren't happy enough to pop bottles.

What's happening today

• President Joe Biden meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes advance GDP data for Q2.
• Hermès, Nissan, Southwest Airlines, and other companies are reporting earnings.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Annie Smith, associate producer, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.