Artificial Intelligence Is the Key to Understanding Big Tech Firms' Moves

The actions of tech giants such as Alphabet (GOOGL - Get Report) can seem highly confusing at times. Take, for instance, Google's Q1 report this week, which missed revenue expectations. Observers struggled to understand exactly what had happened. Management mumbled something about having made "product changes" to various advertising products to improve them. That excuse brought little satisfaction to Wall Street analysts, who the next morning grumbled that there was no way to know whether the underperformance would last or was just a one-quarter thing.