Kroger, others get into AI act, Barrons says

Kroger (KR) mentioned AI eight times during its conference call this past Thursday, after mentioning it zero times during its previous one in March, Ben Levisohn writes in this week’s edition of Barron’s. And it wasn’t the only company reporting earnings this past week to mention AI. Home builder Lennar (LEN) touted something called the Lennar Machine, which combines the company’s “digital marketing platform and…dynamic pricing model to continue to drive sales volume.” It could be the place “where the often talked about AI might find its way into the sometimes-stodgy homebuilding industry.” This comes as tocks with direct exposure to AI have been tearing it up this year, from Nvidia (NVDA), which has nearly tripled in 2023, to C3.ai (AI), which has nearly quadrupled, the author notes.