Artificial intelligence, and whether it will be a boon or a curse for the local technology sector, will be a central theme in the companies reporting period which starts this week, with the market also expecting proof cost-cutting and price increases are pushing their investments into profit.

Shares in NextDC, the ASX-listed data centre provider and Megaport, the networks business, have already risen following the explosion of interest in AI, with recent Microsoft and Google earnings results reinforcing the growing need for cloud computing and multi-cloud connections.