The Queen, the Bees, and the Honey: A New Order for Capital Markets: How artificial intelligence is reorganizing the capital ecosystem — from allocator strategy to deal sourcing

By William “Hollis” Hollis

In an interview on *The Diary of a CEO* podcast, Kevin O’Leary described how Steve Jobs created a competitive edge. Jobs didn’t just build products — he built the queen bee. By making the Mac OS the nucleus of an ecosystem, he created a hive that attracted talent, developers, and capital. AI now sits in that same position — the organizing force of a new economy.

In fact, in every cycle of innovation, a single organizing force defines the rules of value creation. In the industrial age, it was the factory. In the digital age, it was the platform. Today, it’s AI — quietly rewiring how capital finds opportunity. And just like the early Apple ecosystem, the capital markets must buzz around it, building systems, strategies, and products of their own. AI is the queen. We are the bees. Let’s make some honey.

The Bees: People Working Smarter with AI

Across the world of money and investing, AI is no longer just a shiny object—it’s a vital part of everyday work. Investors are using AI tools that can scan huge amounts of data in seconds to spot trends and patterns. Fund managers are using AI to find deals faster, understand risks sooner, and make smarter choices. Business owners are using it to handle reports and data that used to take months to review. The whole hive is moving faster than ever, guided by smart technology.

This isn’t about replacing people—it’s about making them stronger. The best investors still use their experience and gut instincts; they just use AI to make better decisions. Those who ignore it aren’t being left out because robots take over their jobs—they’re being left behind because others move faster with the help of AI.

The message is simple: the hive is already in motion, and those who don’t adapt in meaningful ways will fall behind.

The Honey: The Bees' Work Product

The “honey” of today’s financial world is speed, precision, and confidence. An operator who uses AI doesn’t just find more deals—they find better ones.

Take a developer planning to build a new community. AI can study and predict population changes, job growth, and local spending to find the perfect location before anyone else does. It can read through city plans and public comments to predict whether a project will get approved or delayed. It can even help pick which investors to talk to and what message will work best for each one. What once took weeks of manual research, agency fees, and endless marketing cycles now takes a fraction of the time and cost. AI doesn’t take away people’s work—it helps them make smarter choices faster.

A family office using AI can do more than spot risks—it can predict opportunity before anyone else sees it. By feeding in streams of market data, deal announcements, zoning updates, startup funding rounds, and even global sentiment, AI can recognize patterns that point to what’s coming next. It can flag emerging sectors, cities poised for growth, or founders ready to scale before those names ever hit the news. With AI, the team isn’t just reacting to trends—it’s anticipating them. The system learns from every choice, sharpening its sense of timing and direction, helping the office see where capital will flow next. The hive grows smarter with each step.

The Queen’s Signal

AI doesn’t dictate behavior—it emits a signal, subtle yet persistent, that ripples through every level of the economic ecosystem. The bees who learn to listen to the queen's signal and respond will find new opportunities first. They’ll test ideas, check what’s working, and change direction quickly when they need to. They'll spend time building that new tool, automating that annoying process, exploring the flowers in the fields, and keeping an eye on the other bees.

The smartest leaders in the capital markets understand that AI isn’t just another app. AI is not NFTs, VR headsets, or the metaverse; it’s the system that connects everything. To quote Kevin O'Leary again, "This is bigger than the internet". The internet was the queen bee once upon a time. There's a new queen in the hive. The call to action is not to fear AI, but to engage with it deliberately—to build proximity to the queen and learn to translate her signal into action.

Building the Hive

The smartest firms are re‑architecting around AI in a big way.

They use it to improve communication, manage money, track operations, and make sharper decisions across every department. Every conversation, report, meeting note, and transaction becomes data that helps the company learn, adapt, and act faster. They build systems that connect marketing with investor relations, property data with finance, and operations with analytics, forming a continuous loop of learning. Over time, all these parts begin to sync like a living hive—self-learning, fast, and constantly evolving. The firms that do this don’t just save time—they unlock new ways to see their business and spot opportunities others miss.

If you’re behind, now is the time to catch up. Here's how. Start by using AI to help find deals, reach investors, and study performance, but don’t stop there. Automate repetitive work, analyze trends as they happen, and train your teams to work with technology instead of against it. Not sure how to use any for any of those things? Let AI teach you to use AI. Simple.

The firms that embrace this mindset won’t lose their people—they’ll free them to do higher-level thinking while AI manages the swarm of data below. The ones who learn to use it will move ahead faster than they ever thought possible. The rest will be left standing still, watching others gather the honey—and wondering when they stopped flying.

The New Order of Capital Markets

The age of AI isn't just beginning. It's already here. Jobs placed Apple's OS at the heart of an ecosystem and, in doing so, birthed an iconic queen bee. Now, through humanity's undying curiosity, another has emerged. This one is unlike any other innovation mankind has seen.

In this new age, the businesses that succeed will be the ones that treat AI as essential, not optional. Those that integrate it early will redefine how capital, data, and decisions move through the economy. AI will determine who thrives, who fades, and who gets left behind as markets evolve.

The queen is here, and the hive is buzzing louder each day. Around her, entire industries are shifting—capital allocators are rethinking strategy, operators are building new systems, and innovators are creating tools. The honey runneth over.

The opportunity isn’t just to use AI, but to understand it, to build around it, and to shape how it changes our world. The only question left is: will you follow the queen?

William “Hollis” Hollis
Co-Founder
Capital Advisory AI

Capital Advisory AI is a next-generation capital advisory firm that uses AI-driven investor targeting, outreach, and relationship management for identifying investors, structuring capital raises, and managing investor relations — but with data-driven precision and scalability. It merges capital markets expertise with AI-based prospecting, personalization, and engagement.