How AI is reshaping travel, gaming and streaming

Key takeaways

• Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) have helped drive strong results for many technology companies, with the potential to propel continued growth in the years ahead.
• Consumer-focused companies in the Nasdaq-100 are also harnessing AI to help propel their growth, as AI increasingly influences how and where we spend our leisure time.
• AI is already changing how we plan vacations, play video games, and binge TV shows and movies, resulting in growth opportunities for companies that can successfully integrate AI into our lives.

The vast potential of artificial intelligence (AI) has already led to strong performance in 2023 for many technology companies in the Nasdaq-100 Index, which Invesco QQQ ETF tracks.¹ Several of those companies— including NVIDIA, Microsoft and Alphabet — have directly benefited  from an increased need for both the infrastructure that powers AI and applications like ChatGPT that expand this cutting-edge technology to a broad user base. This can be shown through NVIDIA’s increase in revenue from their datacenter business. Datacenters are key part of the infrastructure to AI, housing the servers that store the data and power AI applications. NVIDIA has seen revenue from their datacenter business increase from $634 million in the first quarter of 2020 to $4.28 billion in the second quarter of 2023, an increase of 575%.²

But the impact of AI transcends these obvious beneficiaries. Several consumer-focused companies in the Nasdaq-100 are tapping into the potential of AI and other innovations to engage their customers and drive growth. AI is already transforming the lives of tens of millions of people, helping them discover new travel destinations, play in ever-more realistic virtual worlds and watch content that matches their unique preferences. As a result, companies can create more customized choices and tailored experiences for their customers, potentially driving long-term results.

Travel companies: How AI could plan your next vacation 

Travel companies are integrating ChatGPT and other technologies into their search engines to offer more customized vacation planning. For instance, Booking.com and Priceline.com, subsidiaries of Nasdaq-100 constituent Booking Holdings, have launched a conversational trip-planning tool that allows users to create a trip itinerary using ChatGPT.³ The tool serves as a virtual travel agent to help travelers select destinations, hotels and restaurants, including pictures and reviews.  

Innovations at similar companies are also on the horizon. Online travel company Airbnb, Inc. — another Nasdaq-100 constituent — has promised that AI will transform its business in the years ahead.⁴ Airbnb plans to integrate ChatGPT and other innovations in the years ahead as it continues to compete with traditional travel companies. While Airbnb currently allows users to tell the platform where they’re looking to stay, an AI-powered “concierge” service could proactively offer suggestions for users based on their profiles and other information.⁵ This customized experience could lead to more bookings and potentially more revenue in the years ahead.

How AI is affecting virtual worlds

While travel companies are looking to leverage AI to help travelers find new vacation spots, video game companies are using new technologies to create enhanced experiences in their own living rooms. AI is set to have a significant impact on gaming companies such as Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard, both of which are Nasdaq-100 constituents. Breakthroughs in AI are already disrupting how these companies create games by speeding up the creative process and enabling designers and coders to incorporate visual assets from other games in new titles.⁶ Activision Blizzard is using AI to make games like Call of Duty more realistic using motion-capture technology and other techniques.⁷

The CEOs of Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard both predict that the video game industry will emerge as one of the major beneficiaries of AI advances. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick even traces the origins of AI and ChatGPT to attempts for developers to figure out how to “beat” games such as World of Warcraft. To demonstrate the strong link between AI and video game companies, Electronic Arts announced a partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, to continue AI research and development.⁸ It appears that video game companies have shaped the origin of AI and will continue to help power its future in the years ahead.

How AI and machine learning (ML) are changing how and what you watch

For consumers not looking to leave the house, streaming-service Netflix, Inc. — another member of the Nasdaq-100 — has used machine learning (ML) and data science for years to recommend new shows and movies based on users’ viewing histories. Netflix is also using AI to improve the viewing experience of its vast catalog of titles by using an AI-powered program to determine the best picture quality for users while using the least amount of data.⁹ Netflix has even incorporated AI in its production efforts. For instance, Netflix used AI, not human animators, to create the background imagery in a three-minute animated movie on its platform.¹⁰

The increasing implementation of AI in the creative process has amplified concerns that AI could disrupt the ways films and other content will be produced in the future. Even an episode of Netflix’s own show Black Mirror satirized the company by focusing on a fictional streaming service (clearly based on Netflix) that creates a show using AI based on one of its customer’s life and likeness. This dystopian vision shows both the opportunity of AI as well as concerns about how much technology is infiltrating our lives. The episode also shows that AI is here to stay – with both potentially positive and uncertain impacts in the future.

Looking ahead

As these examples demonstrate, AI is rapidly reshaping the world and driving innovations in how consumers spend their leisure time. The full impact of AI on sectors and companies will likely take some time to play out, but it’s clear that there’s no way to put the proverbial AI genie back in the bottle. No matter the sector, companies on the forefront of innovation – like those accessible through Invesco QQQ – will likely continue to shape the future for both consumers and investors alike.