Proving Alpha: How a Hedge Fund Measures AI’s ROI – Hari Kumar, Contour Asset Management
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Hari Kumar, head of AI at Contour Asset Management, a $6B fundamental long/short fund focused on tech, media and telecom, tackles the hardest question in AI adoption: what are we actually getting for the spend? He shares how Contour runs live A/B tests of analysts' research with and without AI tools, tracks "cost per useful insight," uses agents to resurface old ideas when the market makes them interesting again, and extends the same thinking to trading, ops and compliance. Chapters 00:00 Intro: AI at a $6B fundamental fund 01:45 Why AI ROI is so hard to capture 02:25 Live A/B tests of research with and without AI 05:42 Measuring the process, not just P&L 06:24 Idea generation and timing agents 08:57 Bringing alternative data together 10:04 Time spent and cost per useful insight 11:44 AI across trading, ops and compliance 14:35 Getting more from existing data spend 16:40 The hidden cost of fixing AI tools Hari Kumar, Contour Asset Management Join us in SF for the second annual AIE CODE summit: https://aie.codes our last flagship summit of 2026. Applications live now!
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