Wall Street firms are taking picks on which tech giants will come out on top of the artificial intelligence landscape. Jefferies analysts foresee Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) to dominate in consumer AI offerings, while Evercore ISI expects Apple (AAPL) and its devices to benefit the most from large language models.

Yahoo Finance Live discusses where these companies will see the biggest opportunities from AI integration and when it will become most apparent in earnings figures.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: While artificial intelligence remains the talk of the town in 2024 after the boom in '23. As more companies expand AI investments, Wall Street is weighing in on who stands to benefit from the AI liftoff.

Jefferies shouting out Meta and Alphabet as best positioned to win the consumer AI opportunity. While Evercore ISI names Apple as an underappreciated artificial intelligence beneficiary here. Just a larger question of what artificial intelligence and generative AI consumers will flock into and who within, not just the software space, but also the hardware space, where it's extremely difficult to get that right out of the gate, where the early adopters will perhaps have a thought process or, at least, some type of praise that permeates even further into the condom-- the common consumer that's out there as well.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: It's true. Because when you think of perhaps adding generative AI on as something to add on that you don't already have versus the note that we saw from Evercore ISI analyst, Amit Daryanani, saying that the company isn't underappreciated AI beneficiary, but then really ties it to Siri. So something that you have-- millions of people who already have those phones in their pockets already use Siri. So really, a natural evolution there versus having to add ChatGPT onto something else that you're perhaps not familiar with.

BRAD SMITH: Right. They said that. And in this Jefferies note, it was interesting, 89% of full-time office workers in the US have heard of ChatGPT. That's up from 52% in February of 2023. Now, the increased usage of AI tools-- they're also mentioning there that in tandem, it brings fear of AI job automation.

What we've had a discussion about time and time again, whenever there is a job's day, and we're talking about when AI is going to show up in the productivity numbers, when generative AI is going to show up as a broader impact to the employment situation.

We're still a ways off from it, having a huge impact on either of those fronts. But it is a larger question of how many corporations are already starting to plan out, what resources look like, what spends on technology versus human resources also looks like to facilitate and unlock, perhaps, that next leg of productivity, and how many of us are working in tandem with some of that generative AI to complete menial tasks at the end of the day too.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: It's true. Because even though clearly a lot more people have heard of it in terms of how they use it in their work. I think a lot of people are still trying to figure that out, because it's one thing to have it sitting there, and then you're really not sure if it's something that you can use if you have permission to use it, how much of it you can use, the ethics around it.

So I think perhaps if there was a bit more clarity in how people could use it, and even how useful they find it, because usually, it's creatives or it's for some of these menial tasks. But if it's like mid-journey, something else, something creative-- but then when it comes to your everyday working life, where those guidelines are still not clear.

BRAD SMITH: I think in marketing automation tools, it's one area. Easily, it could have a big impact. You think about all the different marketing automation campaigns. And I'm thinking of how this could impact a company in Oracle even and some of the subsidiaries that they have, or even in Salesforce, where as they had their AI Day last year, and we're talking about how it can help sales teams more efficiently craft an email that could be ready to go out.

So what type of jobs does that impact? How much quicker? Does it allow you to have that touch point and bring back in different points of contact that you've had with the customer?

So there's a bevy of different ways to think about how it could be implemented.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Indeed. Still figuring all of that out, of course.