With its latest search engine innovations, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) isn't an immediate threat to Google Search (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft Bing (NASDAQ:MSFT), according to Bank of America. But BofA analysts Justin Post and Nitin Bansal pointed out that Meta's increasing emphasis on AI and search indicates more competitiveness in a sector traditionally controlled by Google.

"While Meta's AI efforts are not surprising, the growing news flow on possible competition in Search remains a sentiment negative for Alphabet/Google search," Post and Bansal said in an analyst note. Meta's new search capability runs via its Meta AI chatbot, which is connected via Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Analysts pointed out Meta's potential to draw consumers looking for information given Meta's vast user base spends on Facebook and Instagram, roughly 40 minutes each day.

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This can cause a slow change in internet traffic away from Google Search, which now boasts a commanding 90% dominance of the worldwide market. Given Meta's extensive AI infrastructure and the Llama huge language model, BofA also noted Meta's good position to create their own answer-search model. " Meta possibly has more capital to sign licensing agreements and a larger user and content base to train its own LLM," BofA said.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.