Companies are talking about AI considerably less than before

The first quarter of this year was a record for big companies mentioning AI or artificial intelligence on their earnings calls. The second? It appears to have declined or at least plateaued (while the vast majority of companies have reported Q2 earnings, there may be a few stragglers, so we’ll see).

The decline is even more apparent for companies of all sizes, where mentions of AI peaked in Q4 2023, according to a survey of FactSet CallStreet earnings transcripts.

To be clear, companies are still talking about AI a lot, but just not at the fever pitch they had been.

There are a few possible reasons. Perhaps we’ve passed the peak of interest in AI. The popular imagination seems to have moved on as well, as evidenced by a decline in Google searches for AI. Or it simply isn’t the new buzzword anymore and AI has become part of the furniture so there’s no need to say something so obvious.

Or maybe, it’s because AI is, as Ed Zitron keeps exclaiming, a bubble, and companies are realizing its real-world utility might be less than promised.

For what it’s worth, when companies do talk about AI on their earnings calls, it’s increasingly in the context of investors inquiring about when they’ll see a return on their massive investments.