Data everywhere, insight nowhere? Here's how you can solve that information oversupply!
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| For today’s article, let’s discuss an important topic that I’m sure many, if not all of us, can relate to. Are you ready? Keep reading below to know more. Data everywhere, insight nowhere? Here's how you can solve that information oversupply! In September 2025, Professor Joel Litman, Chairman and CEO of Valens Research and Chief Investment Officer of Altimetry Financial Research, framed the future of investing not as a market timing problem. According to him, it is a filtration problem. At the time, Professor Litman emphasized that investors were no longer operating in a traditional information economy; they were operating in what he described as an information oversupply economy. … and over the past year, that distinction has only grown more pronounced. Think about this: Nowadays, capital markets are saturated with:
Every tap, swipe, search query, and digital interaction continues to expand an investable universe of insight that most organizations still lack the tools—or frameworks—to interpret effectively. By 2026, the world’s data output has continued its exponential climb, now measured routinely in zettabytes (with a single zettabyte representing one trillion gigabytes of information). According to Professor Litman, this represented both the greatest opportunity and the most dangerous analytical trap of the modern era, especially for investors. After all, more information does not automatically translate into better decision-making. Without the right lens, it often leads to the opposite.
From Information Advantage to Interpretation Advantage Professor Litman’s 2025 thesis rested on a simple but critical shift: There was a time when having access to better information created alpha . However, that time has passed. Over the last year, earnings releases have become more rapidly disseminated, analyst commentary more globally synchronized, and alternative datasets more widely commercialized. Simply said, information itself is no longer scarce; interpretation is. According to Professor Litman, the investors most likely to outperform in this environment would not be those with access to more data, but those capable of translating unconventional inputs into economically meaningful insight faster and more accurately than the market. This shift mirrors what has unfolded across the corporate landscape throughout 2025 and in the following years. Companies are no longer asking: “How much data do we have?” Instead, they’re asking: “Can we turn what we have into something decision-useful?” Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly become the only scalable mechanism capable of transforming this flood of raw, unstructured inputs into actionable patterns—whether forecasting demand shifts, identifying operational inefficiencies, or surfacing emerging competitive threats. … but Professor Litman cautioned that AI adoption alone would not be synonymous with value creation. Just as the rise of the Internet didn’t make every dot-com company a winning investment, the rise of AI will not make every AI-enabled firm economically viable. Besides, rapid technological transformation tends to produce two things simultaneously:
When Professor Litman first made his remarks in 2025, debate around the possibility of AI-driven asset bubbles was already beginning to surface. Even Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, had acknowledged the potential for pockets of speculative overvaluation within the broader AI ecosystem. Almost a year later, those concerns have not disappeared. If anything, they’ve become more central to institutional portfolio construction discussions. This makes Professor Litman’s underlying message even more relevant for asset managers and investment professionals navigating mid-2026 market dynamics: Periods of technological enthusiasm heighten the importance of rigorous economic analysis. As a result of that, investors must continue to look beyond:
… and instead evaluate whether companies are genuinely converting data capabilities into:
That is because in Professor Litman’s framework, value is ultimately created not by possessing data, but by using it to improve return-driven fundamentals. Filtering the Storm Is Now a Core Investing Skill The firms most likely to outperform through the remainder of the decade, as Professor Litman suggested, would be those that can:
In other words, success will belong to organizations that can filter the storm—a challenge that has only intensified between September 2025 and August 2026. For investors navigating an increasingly complex landscape shaped by AI, alternative data, and digital transformation, the question is no longer whether opportunity exists inside the information explosion. It’s whether they are equipped to separate meaningful signals from market-moving noise before everyone else does. After all, in an era where data is infinite, interpretation remains the new alpha. Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. Stay tuned for next Wednesday’s The Independent Investor! All it took was a warning to wipe out five years of investor confidence. Learn more about how one warning can erase five years of confidence in next week’s article! |
Miles Everson
CEO of MBO Partners and former Global Advisory and Consulting CEO at PwC, Everson has worked with many of the world's largest and most prominent organizations, specializing in executive management. He helps companies balance growth, reduce risk, maximize return, and excel in strategic business priorities.
He is a sought-after public speaker and contributor and has been a case study for success from Harvard Business School.
Everson is a Certified Public Accountant, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants. He graduated from St. Cloud State University with a B.S. in Accounting.
