Investor relations teams have moved quickly from experimenting with AI to using it for research, data analysis, drafting and executive preparation. The next challenge is using it with greater precision, without losing company context, executive voice or human judgment. At the same time, AI is changing how market participants search, summarize and interpret company communications, with implications for investor expectations and valuation.

In this practical session, Kathleen Perley, founder and CEO of Adair, will examine AI’s role on both sides of capital markets communication: how executives and IR teams use it, and how the Street uses it to interpret what companies say. She will explore where AI adds value, where it reaches its limits and how language, context and consistency can help narrow the gap between management’s intent and the market’s understanding.

Attendees will leave with a clear framework for deciding what AI can take a first pass on, where human judgment must remain central and how to assess whether a tool has the context a task requires. Designed for IR professionals and the executives they advise, this tool-agnostic session offers practical guidance they can apply immediately.

Kathleen Perley began her career as a linguist and Fulbright fellow, studying how people learning English make themselves understood. She later founded the healthcare digital agency Decode and led AI integration as chief innovation officer at Unlock Health. She is founder and CEO of Adair, which helps executives measure and mitigate interpretation risk before earnings calls and other market-moving communications. The company combines computational linguistics and behavioral economics with senior capital markets counsel. Its models anticipate how individual analysts may interpret a message, predict their questions and estimate the potential valuation impact of language.

She teaches AI strategy and implementation at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and serves as AI advisor to the deans. Her book, “AI Made Simple. Results Made Real,” helps leaders make informed decisions about AI without becoming technologists. Her podcast, “Not Artificial. Just Intelligence,” co-hosted with Hewlett Packard Enterprise CFO Marie Myers, is scheduled to launch in November 2026.