2024 will be ‘year of AI’ as tech stocks surge 25%, Wedbush’s Dan Ives predicts

“We believe tech stocks will be up 25% in 2024,” Ives wrote in a Monday note, adding that “the Street and tech world await ‘the Year of AI.’” In a best-case-scenario, Ives argued that tech stocks could even see a 35% gain in 2024, leading the Nasdaq Composite to a record 20,000. 

The key to the veteran analyst’s bullish view on tech stocks is based on one simple idea: AI use cases are “exploding globally.” Based on new surveys and his recent trips to tech companies around the world, Ives believes that his peers on Wall Street are still “significantly underestimating how quickly this AI monetization cycle is playing out.”

It’s all about growing ‘use cases’

There’s been a heated debate on Wall Street over the past few years over just how fast AI will affect the bottom line of major corporations. Some argue that the recent hype over AI’s ability to reduce costs and boost productivity for businesses, while in many ways justified, is a bit premature. It’s led to some “risky” stock purchases from inexperienced investors hoping to chase the trend, according to some veteran market watchers. Even Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last summer that some of the latest AI tools are still part of the “hype cycle,” arguing they aren’t yet capable of producing meaningful results for businesses. Instead, Jassy said Amazon is focused on next generation AI tools from the “substance cycle.” 

But other more bullish experts, like the notably optimistic Ives, point to rising use cases for the technology as evidence that AI will begin to lift corporate earnings as soon as this year. “Use cases lead to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” Ives wrote Monday—and there’s…