Dive Brief:
- The latest push in the vendor squabble over generative AI dominance came from Google, which on Wednesday announced a slew of new features, products and capabilities related to enterprise use of the technology during its yearly developers' conference, Google I/O.
- The company is embedding generative AI capabilities in its productivity suite through a feature it calls Duet AI. Users of Docs, Meet, Slides, Sheets and other Google products will be able to use prompts to generate or improve content, according to a company blog post. The features will roll out in the weeks ahead and users can sign up via a waitlist.
- Google Cloud also announced new features, including AI-assisted coding, chatting and application development through the Duet AI functionality. "We’ve already seen a number of organizations begin to develop with and deploy our generative AI offerings," said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in a blog post.
Dive Insight:
Technology providers have struck gold with generative AI, a fast-growing category of technology that directly links AI to improved productivity and outcomes.
Microsoft was quick to attract attention in the field of providers thanks to its partnership with OpenAI, whose ChatGPT interface — released at the end of last year — earned rapid adoption. Quickly, too, enterprise leaders began to wonder about where and how the technology could bring more efficiency.
Google last month announced it would infuse its cloud and enterprise productivity solutions with generative AI capabilities, with its own LLM, named PaLM, driving innovation across products. The recent announcement brings generative capabilities a step further.
Already, Google has seen enterprise use cases for its technology. Uber is using generative AI for customer service, while Canva is leaning on Google Cloud capabilities to translate visual assets into more than a hundred languages.
Public concern about the privacy issues, model bias and safety guardrails remain a stumbling block for wider adoption of these tools. Google has taken a measured approach in an attempt to reassure critics.
"While the potential for impact on business is great, we remain committed to taking a responsible approach, guided by our AI Principles," said Kurian. "As we gather more feedback from our customers and users, we will continue to bring new innovations to market, with a goal to enable organizations of every size and industry to increase efficiency, connect with customers in new ways, and unlock entirely new revenue streams."
