Cathie Wood manages net assets of around $12 billion in her Ark Invest exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It's part of her job to keep close tabs on macroeconomic trends while also focusing on major technology disruptions.

What does Wood think is coming? In an interview at the Forbes/SHOOK Top Advisor Summit in Las Vegas on Oct. 4, she sounded concerned yet still upbeat. Wood warned about a hard landing for the U.S. economy. However, she thinks that artificial intelligence (AI) could come to the rescue.

A hard landing -- but not too hard

Inflation has been problematic over the last couple of years, in large part a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates to their highest levels in years. Many leading economists have predicted that a recession is on the way in the near term.

However, the U.S. economy has remained resilient, especially with respect to jobs. Some of the economists who previously anticipated a recession, including those at the Fed, backed off of those forecasts.

Wood, though, remains in the more pessimistic camp. She said at the Forbes/SHOOK summit, "We're going to have a harder landing than most people expect -- particularly in the rest of the world, but also in the U.S."

Importantly, Wood doesn't think this hard landing for the economy will be too hard. She stated that she isn't worried in the least about a severe crisis like the one we experienced in 2008.

AI to the rescue

If Wood is right, the U.S. economy's problems will worsen. However, she proclaimed, "Innovation solves problems -- especially AI."

The Ark Invest founder argued that "deflationary forces brought about by innovation will cause rates to go down, and that's good for growth." She identified three technologies that should especially drive tremendous growth. AI was at the top of the list, followed by robotics and energy storage.

There are reasons to believe that Wood just might be right. Technological innovation can help reduce the cost of goods and services. This can result in lower prices. Consumers' increased buying power can then ignite economic growth as their spending increases. Many companies are already deploying AI in ways that should lower their operating costs.

Wood doesn't think that AI and other technological innovations will be the only factors that lead to a robust economic rebound, though. She singled out another deflationary force: the strength of the U.S. dollar. Wood believes that a strong U.S. dollar is especially important with liquidity issues in other countries, such as China and Japan.

AI stocks Wood is betting heavily on

As you might expect, Wood is betting heavily on AI. Tesla (TSLA 5.93%) ranks as her top AI stock, making up nearly 8% of her total Ark Invest portfolio. 

Wood predicts that autonomous ride-hailing powered by AI (often referred to as robotaxis) presents the greatest growth opportunity for Tesla. Her bear case for the stock is to soar by more than 5.5x by 2027. Roughly two-thirds of Wood's projected valuation for Tesla is tied to the robotaxi market. 

UiPath (PATH -0.48%) is another AI stock that's high on Wood's list. The company is the leader in AI-powered robotic process automation (RPA). UiPath believes that its RPA platform will eventually be able to perform any digital task faster and more consistently than a person can do. Ark Invest has referred to UiPath as part of the "sleeper wave" in AI. 

Wood has also been a vocal cheerleader for another up-and-coming AI player -- Twilio (TWLO 4.20%). The company's customer engagement platform enables software developers to integrate real-time communications with their applications. Ark Invest thinks that generative AI will play a huge role in how companies communicate with their customers going forward, with Twilio in the driver's seat.