There is one notable corner of the tech world that has not been touched by the artificial intelligence euphoria sweeping through the stock market. If generative AI really does represent the next great sales opportunity for the tech industry, then software companies ought to be among the biggest winners. After all, most AI is likely to show up as enhanced features in the business software that companies rely on in their daily operations.
Even if sales are still negligible, the software companies report huge interest from customers in piloting their new AI services. This may mean the AI dividend has just been delayed. Yet the disruptive threats from AI suggest things will not be so straightforward. One is the upheaval to the cloud companies’ business model. Most rely on charging per-seat subscriptions, meaning their revenue goes up in line with the number of workers using their services.