Sundar Pichai on how AI will give Google the edge to beat Amazon, Microsoft

Google Cloud AI

In the last 12 months or so, Google has made a massive AI push across its products and services. One key business where AI will play a crucial rule is Google Cloud. Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google said that in the fourth quarter of 2023, Google Cloud was at a $36 billion annual revenue run rate — five times more than it was five years ago.

Speaking at the Google Cloud Next event, Pichai one of the reasons Cloud is showing so much progress is the deep investments Google has made in AI. “We’ve known for a while that AI will be the next technology to transform companies. Our investments in AI infrastructure and models help put us at the forefront of the AI platform shift,” Pichai said.

Google faces stiff competition in the cloud business where Amazon and Microsoft are ahead of it. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Amazon led the cloud infrastructure market with 31% market share. Microsoft garnered 24% whereas Google had 11% market share. Pichai and Google are betting on AI to help bridge the gap.

Pichai pointed out that Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s platform to customise and fully manage a wide range of leading gen AI models., is now being used by 1 million developers.

The Google CEO also highlighted how big companies are using AI in Google Cloud. “Many customers are using generative AI to build agents that can process information in video, audio or text formats. These agents can help with specific tasks — like customer service or creative design, while learning and improving over time,” he said. Pichai mentioned that Uber, Mercedes-Benz, and Palo Alto Networks are some of the high-profile names partnering with Google Cloud. “Just as cloud computing changed how businesses worked a decade ago, AI is going to drive incredible opportunity and progress all over again,” Pichai added.