AI is the main character in Big Tech's earnings stories

A few big tech companies — Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon — will report results from this past quarter this week. All three of those companies have made significant bets on artificial intelligence. As a result, many investors, active and passive, have as well.

When tech companies report earnings, they’re weaving narratives. One of the tales they’re telling is the Story of AI.

Things like capital expenditures tell us what happened in the most recent chapter, and how aggressively companies are spending

Spending on AI has been part of the story for a minute, said analyst Daniela Hathorn with Capital.com. And now, investors are ready for some plot development, to find out if it’s really paying off.

“It's particularly important to see whether that translates into strong demand and whether that translates into higher revenue,” she said.

Hathorn said she’ll also be watching what Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft say around forward guidance, which is kind of like foreshadowing.

“If it's not looking great, they have to say that. But they try and give a little bit of color to explain why that may be and why that may change in the future,” Hathorn said.

One important thing to remember?

“We're in the first few chapters of the book,” said Gil Luria, head of tech research at D.A. Davidson.

“That's the other message that they're giving us,” he said. “‘There’s some good stories to tell so far, but more importantly for us, we think the stories to be told will be even more important and more impressive.’”

There are also new storytellers that are about to become a lot more vocal, like Anthropic, with all the new paperwork its filing

Investors will have more insight into the state of a company that’s solely focused on AI.

“So it'll be interesting to hear you know what they say about the overall ecosystem and their ability to grow within that, as well as how they’re able to monetize it," said Melissa Otto with S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Right now, we know that AI is definitely a main character in this story, but we’ll have to keep reading to find out if it’s a hero or an anti-hero.