Snap Inc CEO Evan Spiegel said on the social media company’s fourth-quarter call that generative AI would be critical over the next five years to growing augmented reality (AR), which is important to its business.

That technology, which overlays computerized images onto the real world, is currently limited because artists must build 3D models, but generative AI can speed up the process, Spiegel said.

“Imagine playing around with your kids wearing AR glasses and saying, ‘oh my gosh, there’s a pirate ship and a big monster.’ We can bring those to life using generative (AI) art, which I think is really exciting,” he said.

Mark Zuckerberg likewise called generative AI “an extremely exciting new area” on Wednesday during a conference call that referenced the phrase 30 times, up from 22 times in the previous quarter. The Facebook founder and CEO of Meta Platforms Inc, whose shares rocketed 20% after reporting financial results, said users could expect the company to “launch a number of different things this year” in generative AI.

Meta plans to incorporate the new technology across almost all its products, such as generating images, videos, avatars and 3D assets, Zuckerberg said. The software will help content creators produce more across Meta’s apps, he added. And marketers could use generative AI to help with written copy for their paid posts or create imagery and video, Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of the global business group for Meta, said in an interview.

“One of my goals for Meta is to build on our research to become a leader in generative AI,” said Zuckerberg.

Even at Apple Inc, where hardware such as the iPhone has reigned supreme, AI is a big part of the future.

Asked by an analyst about Apple’s AI strategy, Chief Executive Tim Cook said Thursday the company is using such tech to power features like car crash detection in its iPhone and Apple Watch, and that it will be applied throughout Apple’s products and services.

“We see an enormous potential in this space to affect virtually everything we do,” Cook said. “It’s obviously a horizontal technology, not a vertical. And so, it will affect every product and every service that we have.”