Microsoft Omits the AI Progress Report Investors Wanted
Shareholders are looking for any reassurance that progress on artificial intelligence is on track as costs mount to deploy the technology.
If there’s money to be made in AI, there’s a good chance its will show up on Microsoft's income statement first.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
If artificial intelligence is going to live up to the hype, Goldman Sachs analysts said recently, the excitement stage of AI needs to shift drastically this year into a period of meaningful deployment. ChatGPT is cool, but its limited utility is a long way from justifying the billions of dollars invested in pushing the technology forward.
If there’s money to be made in AI, there’s a very good chance it will show up on Microsoft Corp.’s income statement first. Investors are looking for any reassurance that things are going according to plan, making Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella’s appearance during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday a closely followed affair. Unfortunately, the audience was left wanting, and shares slipped about 1% in after-hours trading.