Earnings from social and search players signal that AI will be a long-play investment

Madison Avenue and Wall Street are receiving similar signals from Silicon Valley this earnings season: Generative AI will be worth the investment. It just might take a while.

Google, Microsoft and Snap all reported results yesterday that exceeded expectations. And while CEOs celebrated solid results, leaders in social and search also warn it will take a while to scale the business side of generative AI across those areas.

Without disclosing exact dollar amounts, Microsoft said quarterly search and news advertising revenue rose 12%, its highest year-over-year-growth since the generative AI race began. (Cloud revenue led the way with $35.1 billion for a 23% increase.) Although Bing and Edge gained market share as Microsoft adds generative AI into its search and browser offerings, the company expects revenue from search and news advertising to remain relatively flat.

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