A strategic AI play with Gemini

While Google made a giant splash with its Pixel 10 sequence of smartphones, it was the software program options that had been strategically vital for the tech large’s bid to compete with gamers like OpenAI and Perplexity in shopper AI.

As it launched its newest units on Wednesday, Alphabet-owned Google confirmed off a slew of synthetic intelligence options which might be powered by the agency’s Gemini AI fashions. “Magic Cue,” for instance, can scour varied apps for data and ship it to customers when required. “Camera Coach” can provide customers tips about alter framing and different facets of an image for the proper shot. Live translation for telephone calls can be accessible.

All of this offers a glimpse into the so-called “agentic AI” future that tech giants are hoping to achieve, the place super-smart AI assistants can perform complicated duties.

It is a pivotal time for Google to provide you with solutions, as fears mount that customers and income from its core search product could possibly be eroded as extra individuals flip to rivals like Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Before Google lies a singular alternative — the corporate develops Android, the working system that’s put in throughout greater than three billion units globally, lots of that are smartphones.

“The company is leapfrogging rivals like OpenAI and DeepSeek by leveraging its access to billions of Android users, enabling a more effective distribution, integration, and a wider range of use cases for Gemini at scale,” Neil Shah, associate at Counterpoint Research, informed CNBC.

Ben Wood,  chief analyst at CCS Insight, stated the smartphone is the “most pervasive consumer device on the planet” and that Google now has an “opportunity to get people hooked on Gemini.”

Google does not must promote a excessive quantity of Pixel telephones to search out AI success with customers. In truth, Pixel had only a 0.3% share of the worldwide smartphone market within the first half of the yr, in comparison with 23% for Samsung and 11.8% for Apple, in keeping with the International Data Corporation.

But Google’s goal with its smartphones is to point out off the perfect that Android has to supply when it comes to software program and AI. At that time, Android licensers, which embrace the likes of Samsung and Xiaomi, could undertake a few of these options on their new handsets.

This cycle would in flip unfold Google’s Gemini and AI instruments to extra customers.

“This massive user base creates a “flywheel impact” of adoption, usage, and feedback, further solidifying Gemini’s position as a master agent on the most widely used device on the planet—the smartphone,” Shah stated.

The timing can be advantageous due to struggles at rival Apple. The Cupertino large’s lack of AI technique has involved buyers, with the iPhone exhibiting only a few options in comparison with Google’s choices.

“Google has their tails up because Apple has dropped the ball. When Apple gets AI right it will be a fantastic experience. But right now, Google and all Android licensees have a window of opportunity,” Wood stated.

Yet whereas there may be now a land seize for customers between main AI gamers, questions nonetheless linger over how Google will finally monetize its AI providers.