September 7, 2023

Google Cloud Next in Four Words: AI Intensity, Growth and Customers

Google had its annual customer conference, Google Cloud Next 2023, last week in San Francisco. It was clearly one of the most focused conferences they have ever had. Google Cloud Next 2023 had over 20,000 attendees.

The conference was focused on the latest innovations in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. This blog summarizes the key things that happened at the conference.

Google and AI Intensity

Google showed an intense focus on all things AI at Cloud Next. The focus was all about Duet AI and Vertex.

Duet AI was announced as now generally available (see: Google Cloud Next 2023: Duet AI for Workspace is Now Available). Google is positioning Duet as a way for humans to interface and interact with applications. We like this positioning and Duet does act differently based on the use case. But it is a way to give Google Workspace commands and have it react with new text or images, just as two small examples.
Vertex AI is also generally available. It features the PaLM II LLM but Google also did not let others steal the show. It now offers partnerships with others such as Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and startups such as TypeFace. This means, that customers can use just about any LLM they choose.
- One area that was not as much news as it could have been. GenApp Builder its low code bot and conversational search tool, is now called Vertex AI Search. This is one of the tools that customers used back in June to build low-code Q&A bots with a few mouse clicks. It allows existing informational sources to be used and can then be them to answer questions.

Growth of Google GCP

Google Cloud has grown substantially in the last four years, and the company is now the second-largest cloud provider in the world. Google Cloud’s CEO, Thomas Kurian, announced that the company is on track to reach $100 billion in revenue in the next few years.

Customers Show Up at Google Cloud Next

A significant shift at Google Cloud Next was that more high-profile customers showed up than ever before. This included Coca-Cola, Disney, and Spotify. Google Cloud also announced partnerships with Confluent, DataRobot, Elastic, and MongoDB. They announced partnerships with data providers including Acxiom, Bloomberg, CoreLogic, Equifax, NIQ, and TransUnion.

Bottom Line

Overall, Google Cloud Next 2023 was bigger and much better than many expected. Google showed off its technical chops in AI but it explained what it was offering in ways that will attract business leaders to start to use Google Cloud. It is clear that Google is now a strong alternative to both Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS.

The Executive Guide to AI – Aragon Foresight AI

The rush to AI is here! With the growing interest in ChatGPT, enterprises are searching for answers on how to put AI to work.

Aragon Research has been covering artificial intelligence for over seven years. In this Demo Day on Thursday, September 28th, Aragon CEO and Founder, Jim Lundy, will provide a deep dive into Aragon Research’s coverage of AI and provide a demo of our service that we refer to as Foresight.

Topics we will cover in this webinar include:

AI trends business leaders need to know.
Why intelligence matters in every business unit.
Demo of Aragon Foresight and how enterprises can leverage it for their business.