Google needs ‘A.I. killer app’ to take on competitors: Analyst

Alphabet (GOOGL) reported first quarter earnings on Tuesday. The company beat the street’s estimates on revenue and profit for the quarter. Alphabet reported ex-TAC revenue of $58.07 billion compared to an estimate of $56.98 billion and EPS of $1.17 compared with an estimate of $1.09. Alphabet also announced a $70 billion buyback. Shares moved higher in after-hours trading on the news. Rohit Kulkarni, Roth MKM Managing Director, joined Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith and Diane King Hall to discuss highlights from the earnings report. Kulkarni stressed the importance of A.I. to the company saying, “Google has always done the cutting-edge research and brought on new products on A.I., but we aren't seeing any real direct-to-consumer A.I. killer app from Google yet...that's what we need to focus on, what is that A.I. killer app…” Kulkarni also pushed for more information from Alphabet in regards to cost-cutting measures, “…there needs to be a little bit of extra discipline from a cost standpoint and with the revenue upset that we are seeing that would just simply, put rocketship boosters to the stock.” You can watch the full interview here. Key video moments 00:00:20 On Google's position in A.I. race 00:00:40 On Silicon Valley's view on Google in A.I. race 00:00:55 On focus to find 'killer' app 00:01:30 On soft revenue growth era 00:02:00 On need to reduce headcount 00:02:15 On need for discipline for cost-cutting Read More...