Ryan Nowicki Stewart, founder and CEO of Pennant, joined Activist Investing Today to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping proxy voting and shareholder engagement.
Nowicki Stewart drew on his experience at BlackRock Inc. (BLK), State Street Corp. (STT) and PJT Partners Inc. (PJT) to outline inefficiencies in legacy voting infrastructure.
He said Pennant’s AI-native platform enables asset managers to customize voting policies, monitor filings in real time and automate analysis, reducing reliance on Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass, Lewis & Co. LLC.
Nowicki Stewart highlighted tools such as AI agents that track disclosures and flag governance issues, alongside benchmarking systems that evaluate large language models on activism scenarios and M&A decisions.
He argued that while AI will handle routine voting and expand participation, human judgment will remain critical in contested situations, with engagement becoming more important as automation increases.
Listen to the podcast with Ryan Nowicki Stewart below:
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