Google Cloud's annual Next conference is right around the corner, taking place April 9-11 in Las Vegas. It comes at a crucial time for Google, which spent the last year arguing why customers should trust the tech giant's approach to generative AI.
All indications are that, even for Google, this year's event will be heavily focused on generative AI, with the company likely to announce updates and expansions to its Gemini family of AI models and core product ranges, such as Google Workspace.
This year's event will take place in a landscape that has evolved rapidly in the eight months since Google Cloud Next 2023.
Rivals such as Microsoft Azure and AWS have further developed their own cloud offerings, with in-house AI models and hardware acting as a draw for enterprise customers. There is pressure for Google Cloud to clearly articulate its offerings and explain what will make it stand out next year.
Here are three things to keep in mind ahead of Google Cloud Next 2024.
Google Workspace updates
One of the most common ways workers across industries interact with Google Cloud products is through Google Workspace, the company's cloud-native collaboration and productivity platform.
With Gemini for Workspace, previously AI DuoGoogle Cloud has already introduced features like 'Help me write' who writes and perfects the text written in Google Docs and Gmail, or 'Help me organize' which suggests tables for Google Sheets and can fill incomplete cells.
At Google Cloud Next 2024, the company will almost certainly announce new features that further automate and streamline processes for users of workplace productivity software.
One of Google's great strengths is that its apps have been cloud-native and integrated for years, putting it in a great position to implement AI across its range of apps.
Something to keep in mind when it comes to Workspace on Google Cloud Next 2024 is a “great” use case for generative AI. While Google Cloud and competitors like Microsoft Azure have relied on relatively cautious features such as text suggestions or summaries using AI models until now, there is great potential for the technology to be used on a larger scale for greater in-place automation. of work.
Productivity improvements are one of the fastest routes to unlocking the business value of generative AI, and Google Workspace is a great vehicle for this. This is a software package ripe for AI innovation and one that Google Cloud can confidently expect to dwell on throughout the event.
Expansion of AI in Google Cloud services
For its keynote speech, Google has opted for the rather vague title of 'The new way to reach the cloud'.
On paper, this could mean anything, and one would expect that each year the conference aims to reveal new ways for customers to use the cloud. In this case, however, it is almost certainly an indication that Google is looking to use artificial intelligence tools to differentiate itself from its competitors.
In Google Cloud coming 2023Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized Google's commitment to its “AI-first” approach, stating that he sees “making AI work for everyone” as a guiding principle for the next decade of its products.
Doubling down on this with AI products on its cloud platform that deliver tangible benefits for customers will be key at this year's event.
Google Cloud announced the general availability of Vertex AI Search at last year's conference.
The Vertex AI Search platform allows users to search their structured and unstructured data and we can expect more expansions for Vertex AI at this year's event. Many companies are still struggling to reach the level of data maturity necessary to effectively take advantage of the generation artificial intelligence tools and analysis of dataso efforts to help with these challenges would be a welcome announcement.
This could come in the form of customized services to help businesses manage their data, or a stricter approach to AI-powered technology. data management and search functions similar to Vertex AI Search.
Gemini and internal advances
Google has had a rough landing with its Gemini family of AI models, having abruptly abandoned the brand of its Bard chatbot less than a year after ChatGPT competitor launched for the first time.
Google Cloud Next will be an opportunity for the company to re-unite the brand and move beyond the stops and starts of last year, but this will mean establishing a clear vision of 'Gemini' as an umbrella term for AI assistants across the Google portfolio. Google products.
With the right approach, Google Cloud can use Gemini rebrand to show off your AI skills and give companies a reason to forget about Bard altogether. In the same way that Microsoft has come to use 'Copilot' to refer to its family of on-platform AI tools, Google is set to pepper its platform with Gemini assistants and capabilities.
We've already seen examples of using Gemini for Google Cloud for business benefit, with an IT consulting company Cognizant has partnered with Google Cloud and adopted the tool to help its developers write and deploy code faster.
AI code generation is one of the clearest paths to realizing business value from generative AI, and it would be surprising if Google Cloud didn't lean more into this throughout the event.
Google Cloud Next 2024 could be a defining moment for the company. Having been betting so much on AI for years, but still fighting hard to differentiate itself from its competitors, the hyperscaler has the opportunity to establish a clear roadmap for its AI ambitions and explain why companies should invest in its platform. .
