White people who host rental properties on Airbnb earn significantly more per year than Black hosts, but a "race blind" pricing algorithm could help close that income gap, new research shows. Black hosts who rely on Airbnb's algorithm to set enticing prices instead of manually choosing rates increase their occupancy rates significantly, bringing their earnings more in line with the higher rental incomes of white hosts, according to a study coauthored by Shunyuan Zhang, an assistant professor in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School. Zhang's findings come at a critical time for the travel industry. People eager to shake off their COVID-19 cabin fever are gearing up to take vacations, raising Airbnb bookings by 52 percent last quarter from a year earlier. Harnessing artificial intelligence to reduce racial economic disparities might help more property owners benefit from pent-up lodging demand.

Advisors may feel threatened by so-called robo-advisors, but they should be more concerned about artificial intelligence, WealthManagement.com AI, a computer science that analyses data to make predictions or solve problems, could replace up to 45% of U.S. jobs within 20 years, according to Oxford University. Those include higher-complexity roles like accountants and financial advisors. "Financial advisors give advice based on the market and based on long-term trends, and that's exactly what machines are good at," AI expert James Barrat tells WealthManagement.com. Already, an IBM Watson team is working on applying the system to wealth management--from identifying clients' investment preferences to identifying those who are likely to leave an advisor.