For tech investors, generative artificial intelligence has fuelled a powerful rally this year, helping pull the entire US stock market higher. While the sector’s companies have been only too willing to predict great things from the technology, one thing has been notably lacking: precise forecasts of exactly when generative AI will have an impact on the industry’s finances.
That uncertainty has loomed large in recent days as some of the biggest companies have reported their latest earnings, bringing a barrage of questions about the likely effect of the technology on costs and revenues.
Second-quarter earnings from the first batch of the biggest US tech companies — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft — beat expectations. But, along with other groups hoping to get a lift from generative AI, they have not been prepared to predict when new AI features will show up in their products and services or what they hope to charge for the technology, let alone the financial implications.