At I/O 2016 and 2017, Sundar Pichai said that Google is moving from “mobile-first to AI-first.” This included “rethinking everything”. [its] Search in Photos and Smart Reply are early examples. But for much of last year, this AI-first manifesto was largely forgotten, as Google was thought to be lagging behind in applying language models at scale.
Historically, I/O is where Google makes its biggest announcements of the year. That said, the AI race has forced the company to make announcements more frequently over the past year, and not necessarily at the pace it otherwise would. With I/O 2024 just days away, here's what you can expect Google to announce.
Last year, the stakes for I/O rose and many questioned Google's ability to respond to the AI race. Since then, various Gemini-branded features have been included in the underlying Gemini 1.0 and 1.5 family models and Google's largest apps. The company is in a better position than it was 12 months ago, but needs to do more to lead the field.
To become a truly AI-first company, Google must release innovative and widely available features, especially for free users.
app
Google's biggest advantage in the AI space is that it has hundreds of millions of users across services that are key to daily life. There are a lot of new AI apps for early adopters to try, but Google is making it easy for early adopters to get started with AI-powered tools by building them into features that most people already use. can.
This is where Gmail and Docs/Sheets/Slides come into play. Google now offers features to help you create, organize, and visualize these applications. These generative AI functions are very simple and address common tasks that people need to perform every day. As for what's next, Google previewed the side panel in last I/O and has been testing it for the past few months.
I would argue that all of this is geared toward productivity, and I'd love to see more personal use cases for AI to help with other aspects of people's lives, especially Gmail and calendars. Masu.
Other major apps that people use are Google Maps and Search. Search Generative Experience (SGE) was announced a year ago, but one wonders if Google has deemed it mature enough to exit the Labs preview program. I can see the usefulness of providing answers directly instead of making people look up links. At the same time, the implications of that approach for publishers are profound, to say the least.
Google Maps is testing generative AI search that lets you search for places conversationally. Conversational search seems to be better than web search in more specific areas.
Then there's an application and website called Gemini. It's lacking features on mobile, at least not as good as the venerable Google Assistant, and it's not a great phone assistant. Indeed, it looks like a future update will finally resolve this issue.
Chrome is another huge application that people use. We've added a very useful Gemini shortcut to your address bar. Historically, browsers have not been discussed much in I/O. I'm interested in Google's full vision of what AI in Chrome will look like. So far, despite introducing Help me write, a tab organizer, and a theme generator in recent months, there's still nothing particularly transformative about it, especially compared to its AI-leaning competitors.
platform
Then there are the platforms that people are using these apps on. It's no surprise that Google details what's coming in Android 15. How big these updates will be is another question, after last year's surprisingly limited stage presence and quiet public release.
The main uses of generative AI in Android today are Gemini Nano, which powers Gboard Smart Replies, Messages Magic Compose, and Recorder Summary. On-device AI is important to keep cloud costs down and to make Android the place to build Gen AI mobile applications.
That said, aside from wallpapers, I haven't really seen AI applied to the user experience. Rethinking the OS for AI is a big deal. For example, what does a smarter home screen, lock screen, and notification shade look like? What can you do with macros, shortcuts on iOS, and third-party Tasker on Android? And how can Google replicate and automate it with AI?
Comparisons will be made when Apple launches iOS 18 later this year, which is expected to include a number of on-device AI features. The big difference, of course, is that Android and its apps are easier to update than Apple's monolithic OS.
On the platform front, we have Wear OS 5 and (presumably) the long-rumored Android XR. Meta is working to make Horizon OS available to other headset manufacturers, and partnerships with Google and Samsung are still being worked on behind the scenes.
hardware
Elevating to another layer is the hardware that runs these OSes and apps. Google unexpectedly announced his Pixel 8a and standalone Pixel Tablet a week before I/O. Officially, it was to give 8a its own moment. Midranger may have slipped into the fray of other his I/O news.
The question is whether Google will tease the Pixel 9 series with I/O 2024. This happened on Pixel 7, but not on Pixel 8. One reason this won't happen is that the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are still solid smartphones. run away. For example, we're still waiting for the launch of Zoom Enhance, but it would be strange if Google somehow announced its next smartphone before completing the Pixel 8's feature set. More anecdotally, in the US, Google is still heavily promoting the 8 Series as part of the NBA Playoffs.
Google was seen teasing its rumored AI assistant called Pixie. The precedent here would be that Google showed off the new Google Assistant at I/O a few months before the Pixel 4 launch. It may help increase excitement, but not so much if it's not available on existing devices.
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