FTV-MM_2026-1029_Alpaca_EddieYoon_001.txt
English (US)
01:00:07.840 — 01:00:48.320 · Speaker 1
Today's capital market segment is brought to you by alpaca. While American consumers are stretched thin, but fresh data shows that they are continuing to spend with disposable income pinched by persistent costs. Households are not simply retreating, but some are deploying AI to slash bills and strip out unnecessary overhead, and that automated penny pinching can pose direct risks to subscription heavy business models, as well as telecom revenue and brokerage commissions.
Joining us live this morning here at the New York Stock Exchange to break down how consumers are putting AI to work on their finances. Is Eddie Yoon, co-founder of Category Pirates. Eddie, great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining me.
01:00:48.320 — 01:00:49.360 · Speaker 2
Thanks for having me, Ronnie.
01:00:49.400 — 01:01:08.360 · Speaker 1
Well, here we are. We got a slew of economic data out this morning on the US consumer, and we're here digesting the Federal Reserve rate decision. But we all know that the holiday shopping season is soon upon us. So what are consumers dealing with right now and can AI really help?
01:01:08.400 — 01:02:02.240 · Speaker 2
Well, consumers are clearly still out over their skis. They're not happy about it, but they're going to white knuckle it through the holidays as you were talking about. But what you are going to find is that some of them are going to be proactive. In all my work with consumers over three decades. About 10% of the population, they're proactive, 20% are reactive, and 70% are inactive.
They're not going to do anything. So of the 10%, that's a actually a five x increase from the number of people who are actually paying for AI subscription. So I see a lot of growth in that perspective. And there are kind of three ways that they're going to do it around me. One is AI is a personal CFO. People don't have that kind of watching their budgets and looking for ghost subscriptions to cancel.
So that's going to be one. And then you have some other kind of big event type things of if you have kids going to college, a personal AI college financial aid planner, as well as if you're going to buy or sell a home, a personal AI realtor is going to help you save a lot of money in those one off transactions.
01:02:02.280 — 01:02:30.650 · Speaker 1
Yeah, and you bring up a very good point, because here we are counting down to the holidays, and it does seem as though the cost of everything is creeping higher, so it's no surprise that we're seeing energy costs up this year. Given the geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East as well as Ukraine and Russia.
But when we talk about the US economy, many people refer to the K shaped economy. And we know that American consumers are stretched thin. So when it comes to this pocket AI CFO, what are you talking about?
01:02:30.690 — 01:03:40.810 · Speaker 2
Well, in the corporate world, I always say that every budget has about 10% of stupid in it. And the same is true for consumers. We all spend money and we don't think about it. And when was the last time we actually checked? And so there's kind of three buckets that I see maybe for. One is we talked about the ghost subscriptions.
Auto renew was originally a great benefit for consumers. It's turned out to be a liability because we're not checking. So AI is great. Hey let me turn off that auto renew and actually check to see if you actually want that. So that's kind of one. The second one is that there's a lot of bloat in our cell phone bills, in our internet bills and cable bills.
We all know this, but who wants to call and haggle for a thing now with meta muse or grok bot can actually call for you and deal with the customer service agent. It puts the consumer on a level playing field so that they can extract some of those savings. But I was talking with Sean Taylor, the CEO of healthcare, and he was saying that when you're actually shopping for healthcare, it's so confusing.
These are the areas where an AI bot can come in and say, tell me what I mean. Like, what are your needs? What are your prescriptions? How do you care about this kind of a position or not? And you can actually save 15 to 20% on your health care insurance bills if you're smart about using AI.
01:03:41.050 — 01:03:54.250 · Speaker 1
And that is a lot, especially when we're talking about rising prices. So two other areas I want to get your take on, Eddie are education in particular college and also broker fees when you're looking for housing. So how does that actually work?
01:03:54.290 — 01:05:00.290 · Speaker 2
Well, there's two things on this one. We all know college costs are out of control and the consumer is starting to push back. And you're starting to see some universities they can't handle their debt load and they're going to go under with it. Now financial aid is a total black hole. Nobody knows really how it works.
And so what AI is going to do is be able to handle that for you and kind of tell you the obvious things, which are, hey, you know what? Graduate in three years and this is how you can actually do it. Select your major. Choose your courses. Choose your AP classes around that. But then also what your. The key part of it is that these are there's no incentive for the colleges to fix it.
You have to kind of take agency and do that. Now the second part on the real estate part side of things, here's the thing. The give the get is doesn't work for consumers. You know what? You pay the realtor, you know, 5% in total for a transaction of a house. You don't know what you're getting because the ideal realtor is part financial advisor, part accountant, part tax advisor, part therapist for what do you actually need with it?
Nobody can actually do that. But AI can augment your realtor so that you are making sure you're actually getting your money's worth, or you negotiate a lower rate from a realtor.
01:05:00.770 — 01:05:23.780 · Speaker 1
And finally, before I let you go, I do want to ask you about how GLP are actually affecting mindless speed, because here we are digesting earnings from the likes of Merck as well as Eli Lilly. But when it comes to the role of these devices, we have in our hands, as well as the quick fix of GLP, what's happening And should companies out there be concerned?
01:05:23.820 — 01:06:06.340 · Speaker 2
Absolutely. There are companies if you genuinely don't offer the consumer and outcome or you transform their lives better, you better watch out because the GLP is not just about food desires. It's all desires, right? And so you're going to actually start to pull back in. So in the world of consumer shopping, impulse is where all the money is made right.
You walk to the grocery store I got to get this. But ooh, I really want that. When those desires are dampened, watch out, because we've already seen it on the snack food industry. But anything apparel. Ooh, I want that. The target shopper is really being hit hard. My wife would go and she was like, I just kind of like looking at all the different knickknacks.
And when that impulse goes down, it's going to change the landscape dramatically. You better deliver a transformation that matters.
01:06:06.380 — 01:06:14.100 · Speaker 1
Well, Eddie, I appreciate you weighing in on all these topics. A lot of food for thought this morning. So thank you so much for sharing your perspective. Thank you.
