The use of AI in its products have boosted sales for Microsoft. Google’s profits also benefited by the use of AI. Despite the astounding gains in the billions of dollars, there were sizeable lay-offs in both Microsoft and Google.
Microsoft has been incorporating AI-assisted tools for coding, and other purposes, into its software and other offerings for businesses. Sales of Copilot started in November. The programme can summarise meetings held in Teams for anyone who chooses not to attend. Copilot can also draft emails, create word documents, spreadsheet graphs, and Powerpoint presentations.
Mr Nadella said these recent moves were paying off and “winning new customers”.
The strategy for artificial intelligence is also top of mind at Alphabet, the owner of Google and YouTube, which also updated investors on Tuesday.
Alphabet said revenues in the September-December quarter rose 13% year-on-year and reported profits of nearly $20.7bn, compared with $13.6bn last year.
Boss Sundar Pichai said the company’s search, cloud computing and YouTube was also benefiting from investments in AI.
Despite the gains, both companies have continued to slim their workforce.
