The world’s biggest tech companies will be reporting earnings this week. Microsoft and Google’s parent company Alphabet kick things off today with their quarterly look at how much they spent and how much they made.

Expect to hear a lot about artificial intelligence — investors want to know when AI might start showing up in the profit lines of the tech giants.

The race to dominate AI will see big tech companies investing between $15 billion and $20 billion this year, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

“It’s gonna be a big focus of earnings, because every tech stalwart from Google or Amazon to Apple and others is going after what I view as an $800 billion opportunity,” he said.

But Ives also said tech companies might not see much reward until later this year.

Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been getting most of the headlines lately. Meanwhile, Google’s Bard is a serious competitor, said Adam Jackson, co-founder of the tech talent network Braintrust.

He’s noticed a lot of industries are looking to use AI to cut costs as the economy softens.

“Every manager in every public company is asking themselves: ‘How do I use Open AI, ChatGPT or whatever to save money in this coming quarter?’,” he said.

That could offer big tech the AI payoff they’ve been looking for.