As artificial intelligence accelerates across the global economy, markets are beginning to grapple with a new kind of uncertainty. AI promises enormous productivity gains but it also raises questions about the durability of many business models – particularly those built on software, digital intermediation and large white collar workforces.
Many investors are now being forced into an uncomfortable reassessment: what types of assets are structurally resilient in a world of faster, broader disruption?
One area gaining renewed attention right now is real assets infrastructure, specialist property and other essential services with long-term, contractual cashflows.
Whilst these businesses are not immune to macroeconomic conditions, they are far less exposed to the competitive dynamics reshaped by AI and can play a strategic role in navigating the new volatility of AI disruption.
Why real assets can steady the ship
AI has raised disruption risk significantly for asset-light sectors. software platforms, digital marketplaces and service-led businesses face potential margin pressure as AI lowers barriers to entry, accelerates automation and compresses pricing power.
Business models based on intermediation, taking a fee because humans lack time or information, look particularly vulnerable as AI agents become increasingly capable.
With the time horizon for disruption shortening, investors are reassessing where long-term visibility of cashflows can still be found.
In contrast, real assets provide contractual cashflow and resilience, benefitting from qualities such as long leases/regulatory frameworks, inflation-linked income streams, physical infrastructure assets that cannot be replaced by code and the underlying demand for services that are essential for society to function daily.
This dynamic can create a return profile that is less correlated with technological disruption and more tied to population, energy, healthcare and transport needs.
There are several great investment trust options which we invest in via the Momentum Real Assets Growth & Income fund as a play on this trend.
Primary Health Properties (PHP): Predictable income from essential healthcare
Healthcare infrastructure is one of the most stable segments of real assets. The fund holds Primary Health Properties, a large owner of modern primary care facilities.
PHP recently completed its merger with Assura, creating a £6bn healthcare property group, and has delivered 30 consecutive years of dividend growth, according to the fund’s January commentary. Rent reviews have also increased contracted rent roll, reinforcing the underlying visibility of cashflows.
In a world where AI may reshape digital industries at speed, the need for physical GP surgeries and community healthcare centres remains consistent, making PHP a good illustration of ‘AI resilient’ income.
Supermarket Income REIT (SUPR): Anchored by non-discretionary consumer demand
Supermarket Income REIT owns large-format supermarket sites. These assets continue to benefit from resilient food retail demand and strong tenant covenants.
As shopping habits evolve, whether more in-store, more online, or more click and collect, supermarkets’ omnichannel capabilities increase the strategic value of these sites.
AI may alter the digital layer of retail but households still need groceries. SUPR’s properties sit at the intersection of physical retail and logistics, and the long-lease nature of the assets supports stable income through varied economic conditions.
International Public Partnerships (INPP): Infrastructure powering the real economy
To round out the picture, one of the fund’s largest holdings is International Public Partnerships (INPP). It invests in more than 140 public infrastructure assets across energy, transport, education, healthcare and digital networks, aiming to deliver long-term, inflation-linked returns.
What makes INPP particularly relevant in an AI-disruption environment is the nature of the assets it owns. For example, offshore wind transmission links, such as the Rampion project and Beatrice offshore wind farm transmission link, form the physical backbone of the renewable energy system, an area expected to grow as both electrification and AI-driven data centre demand increase.
Another is core social infrastructure, including education, health and justice facilities across the UK, Europe and Australia, providing essential services with government-backed or availability based revenues.
These are not business models exposed to software disruption or algorithmic competition. They represent critical national infrastructure assets that enable the functioning of modern society regardless of AI adoption.
Why diversification into real assets makes sense
AI is reshaping both opportunities and risks across markets, making one thing very clear for investors: when technological uncertainty rises, the value of cashflow stability increases.
We have found that real assets provide structural demand drivers, income visibility through long-term contracts, have low sensitivity to rapid technological change and provide a differentiated return stream which is very valuable within multi-asset portfolios.
As investors look ahead to a future filled with uncertainty, shaped by both innovation and disruption, real assets provide something increasingly scarce: tangible, essential, and resilient cashflows.
Gary Moglione is a portfolio manager at Momentum Global Investment Management. The views expressed above should not be taken as investment advice.