Been digging into some interesting plays lately and honestly, the cheaper AI stocks are looking way more interesting than chasing the mega-cap giants right now. Everyone's obsessed with Nvidia and Microsoft, but their valuations are getting ridiculous. Meanwhile, there are some solid companies quietly crushing it in the AI space that most people are sleeping on.

Let me break down 3 that caught my attention.

First up is ADP. These guys have been in the human capital management game forever, and they're actually ahead of the curve with AI integration. Their new Assist platform is doing some heavy lifting - validating payroll data, catching fraud, providing insights across their entire HCM ecosystem. They've got over a million paying customers and their retention is insanely sticky. Latest numbers showed 7% revenue growth to 5.3 billion and net earnings up 14% year-over-year. The forward P/E sitting around 25 makes it look reasonable compared to the bloated AI hype plays.

Then there's Godaddy. I know, I know - domain registration doesn't sound sexy. But what they've done with AI is actually impressive. Their Airo platform is giving customers legit AI tools - AI logo creation, social media ads, email marketing automation. The execution has been clean too. FY23 earnings jumped nearly 295% year-over-year with free cash flow finally breaking past the 1 billion mark. They also got added to the S&P 500, which is a huge institutional tailwind. That's the kind of catalyst that matters.

Last one is Qualcomm. The semiconductor space has been wild, obviously. But Qcom is trading at way more reasonable multiples than the GPU darlings. Their Snapdragon chips are everywhere - phones, laptops, IoT devices. They just locked in a major deal supplying AI chips for Surface PCs, and their automotive platform is firing on all cylinders. Latest quarter showed 37% earnings growth and they're sitting at a forward P/E around 18. That's compelling value in a sector that's gotten completely unhinged on pricing.

The thing is, if you're looking at affordable AI exposure right now instead of buying at the top of the hype cycle, these kinds of plays make a lot more sense. The AI tailwinds are real, but you don't need to overpay for it.