As Ai Stocks Soar, Retirement Planning Takes Center Stage

As artificial intelligence (AI) stocks like Nvidia, Oracle, Palantir and Tesla are swelling, fear of an AI stock bubble has created divisions on concerns that may loom on the horizon.

One plausible outcome that investors are reckoning with is what lies in store for their retirement accounts, but TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett says that shouldn’t be their main concern, CNBC reported on Thursday.

“I think the real question is not knowing if it’s going to burst or boom. It’s about making sure you’ll be prepared for retirement,” Brown Duckett told the outlet in an interview at TIAA’s FutureWise conference earlier in the week.

Brown Duckett added that investors should instead focus on building a diversified portfolio that includes guaranteed income through annuities or insurance products. “It’s not about timing the market. It’s about how much time you put in the market,” she said. “Income has to be the outcome.”

CNBC pointed to Mercer’s inaugural 2025 Defined Contribution Practices Survey, which found that 35% of U.S. defined contribution plan decision makers plan to prioritize the addition of retirement income solutions — like employer-sponsored retirement plans — in the next year.

Expanding financial wellness programs, ensuring regulatory compliance and managing costs are top priorities for defined contribution plans. Among the 225 plan decision-makers surveyed, 39% cited financial wellness as their No. 1 focus, while 37% prioritized regulatory compliance and 36% focused on cost management.

“We have to make sure that the everyday investor in their retirement does not get to a position that they were too far on the risk curve, that they did not have the counterbalance, which is income,” Brown Duckett said.

Other recent studies have highlighted the growing gaps in retirement planning when it comes to confidence and preparation.

A Capital Group report found large disparities between various generations of entrepreneurs and the retirement options available to them. And Prudential’s 2025 Global Retirement Pulse Survey found that 89% of “mass affluent” Americans believe they’ll be able to cover essential costs in retirement, but many have not taken key steps to ensure their savings will last.