'Humans are the most important part' of investing, says a fund manager whose firm makes every call with algorithms

The internet was becoming mainstream in the late 90s, but Miro Mitev was head-down exploring something that wouldn’t become popular for decades: AI.

Now an asset manager, Mitev was an early adopter of AI in finance after discovering the capabilities of neural networks in 1997 while studying at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

He told CNBC he saw the potential of neural networks for financial forecasts. “I fell in love with these kinds of possibilities,” he said.

Mitev spent his 25-year career forecasting for banks and tech firms like Siemens. He founded SmartWealth Asset Management, whose decisions are made entirely by a network of AI systems. Its latest fund, IVAC, is eyeing $2 billion in assets under management and has an annualized returns target of 14-15%.

Despite no human involvement in the AI’s decisions, Mitev said that “humans are the most important part of the equation” as they’re the ones selecting training data, inputting variables, building the parameters, and consistently tweaking the model.