What happened:Alphabet, Google's parent company, and Microsoft both talked up AI technologies during their respective quarterly earnings calls on Tuesday. The companies have been locked in a race to embed AI across products and search since the rollout of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Bing AI, and Google's Bard chatbot.
What the numbers say:During the calls, Google mentioned AI 52 times and Microsoft 36 times. This represents a huge uptick from the year-ago quarter, when they used the term six and four times, respectively, according to a Reuters analysis.
Quotable:Google CEO Sundar Pichai compared AI to the company's transformation from desktop to mobile. While he said Google plans to incorporate generative AI into its search and cloud, he was cautious as "billions of people trust Google to provide the right information." Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Bing app installations had increased fourfold since it added the OpenAI tech in February. "We look forward to continuing this journey in what is a generational shift in the largest software category — search," Nadella said .
Why it matters:Both companies said AI technology is benefitting sales, though it's still a relatively small part of their overall businesses. It remains to be seen when they will start sharing those specific numbers.