With a number of jobs succumbing to COVID-19, the importance of having side hustles has bubbled to the surface. For sports franchise owner and “Shark Tank” television personality Mark Cuban, artificial intelligence is what he would be looking if he were to begin a side hustle today.
“I would become an expert in scripting for Alexa and Google Home and Cortana and go to any place that sold devices they supported and show them how much more they could do with a few hours of personalization,” Cuban told CNBC Make It.
In particular, Cuban would capitalize on coding voice commands that would allow smart products that utilize artificial intelligence like Alexa, Google Home, or Microsoft’s Cortana to complete tasks. Cuban sees this type of programming skill as one that could pay off handsomely.
“Alexa skills and scripting Alexa skills is really, really easy. But everybody thinks it’s really, really hard. And so that disconnect is a great opportunity,” Cuban previously told Recode’s Peter Kafka in 2019. “I told my kids [and]other kids, learn how to script, and just go get your neighbors and set up all of these Alexa tools and you’ll make $25, $30, $40 an hour.”
The move towards an economy comprised of side gigs can benefit the SoFi Gig Economy ETF (GIGE). The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation and to achieve its investment objective primarily by investing in a portfolio of companies listed around the world that the Adviser considers part of the “gig economy”.
The “gig economy” refers to the group of companies that have embraced, that support, or that otherwise benefit from a workforce where individual employees or independent contractors are empowered to create their own freelance business by leveraging recent developments in technology platforms that enable individuals to offer their services directly to retail and commercial customers.
Another fund to get exposure to disruption via data-driven technology is Goldman Sachs Motif Data-Driven World ETF (GDAT). The fund seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond to the performance of the Motif Data-Driven World Index, which is designed to deliver exposure to companies with common equity securities listed on exchanges in certain developed markets that may benefit from the on-going rapid increase in electronically recorded data in the world and its impact on the lifecycle of data delivery and processing.
GDAT essentially provides exposure to the beneficiaries of technological innovation, regardless of sector, geography or market capitalization. They can be used individually or collectively to help investors position their portfolios for the future.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.
