Wall Street is closely watching Meta Platforms (META) for its aggressive push into artificial intelligence (AI) and its dominant position in digital advertising. The tech giant's early investments in AI infrastructure are seen as a strong engine for long-term growth, with some analysts even setting lofty price targets between $650 and $800 per share. Over the past year, Meta's revenue grew by 23% year-over-year, reaching $156.23 billion. Additionally, its operational efficiency remains impressive, boasting a return on equity of 36%.

In the third quarter of 2023, corporate digital advertising spending decreased by 8% year-over-year. Despite the overall decline, ByteDance's advertising has doubled annually, while X Ads experienced a 31% year-over-year increase. The rise of generative artificial intelligence drove OpenAI to increase spending by 51% in the third quarter.

Surveys show that 79% of senior marketing executives believe that using AI tools increases the return on investment for digital advertising strategies. 85% of marketing executives express confidence in AI tools, and 64% plan to integrate more tools into their workflows in the future. Among respondents, generative AI (such as ChatGPT) is the most popular technology, with 64% planning to incorporate more tools into their workflows. Despite the widespread use of AI tools among marketers, less than 10% are still not using them, citing concerns over data quality and technology.