Investing in NVIDIA or other semiconductor and tech giants is just one way to tap into the artificial intelligence theme.

Sean Peche of Ranmore Capital Management said in last week's CNBC Pro Talks that there is also a lower-cost way to participate in the theme.

"Over the past few years, most investors have believed that the only way to invest in AI is to hold stocks in NVIDIA and a handful of other similar companies," the portfolio manager said.

Peche is optimistic about participating in the theme through the financial sector.

"You will get a very attractive dividend yield, far higher than that of U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs)," Peche said. "If you look at their growth and tangible book value, they are constantly rising from left to right, well managed, with low price-to-earnings ratios, and I believe the use of technology can bring additional upside."

Peche pointed out that AI will help these banks, but investors are not "paying the price" for the AI factor, as these stocks have a price-to-earnings ratio of only 6 times.

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According to FactSet data, the S&P 500 Index, driven by the performance of large technology companies, currently has a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.03 times. NVIDIA's current price-to-earnings ratio is about 57 times.

The stocks he likes include BNP Paribas (BNP-FR), which Peche mentioned has identified 780 "test cases" where AI can help its business.

"So even in a traditional industry like banking, AI can help reduce costs. And think about it, how many times have you actually been to a branch recently? Then think about your mobile apps and chatbots, if you want to add signatories, help them with compliance processing and risk management, AI will play a big role," Peche said.

He also mentioned ABN Amro and UniCredit (UCG-IT), the latter of which he believes is one of the banks "very well managed" and one of the banks that will benefit the most from the potential of AI."It's interesting that a few months ago we analyzed the benefits of AI in the banking industry... Among all the large European banks, UniCredit stands out the most, indicating that it has a very rigorous culture in terms of performance and execution," Peche said.

He is generally optimistic about the European banking industry, with all investment exposures concentrated in this field —— but he emphasized that he is not investing in these banks just because of AI, AI is just an additional "plus point."