Like it or not, Google products are about to get another big infusion of AI.
Artificial intelligence was, unsurprisingly, the star at the tech giant’s annual developer conference, Google I/O. And it included major updates to Google’s core products. (Don’t hold your breath for Gemini 3.5 Pro, though.)
That includes the crown jewel, with Google pushing AI features deeper into the classic search bar. Google’s search head Liz Reid described it as Search’s biggest upgrade since its launch over 25 years ago. BI’s Hugh Langley has the full breakdown here.
Many of the changes essentially make AI Mode, which has been around for more than a year, the default Search experience. The thinking: stop forcing users to choose between AI tools and bundle everything into one experience.
Speaking of cutting down on having to think, Google is also rolling out a new AI agent that’s always on and working for you. Spark is a 24/7 digital assistant that will run in Gemini and work across Google’s various apps and products.
Josh Woodward, VP of Google Gemini, described Spark as being like “tossing things over your shoulder” for the AI to catch and complete. Hugh’s got a full breakdown on Spark here.
Don’t start throwing things just yet, though. Google Ultra subscribers will get the first crack at it. That top-tier plan typically costs $249 a month, but Google is offering a new $100 monthly tier to get people on Spark.
Google’s latest aggressive AI push might not be celebrated by one group: Gen Z.
AI has become a hot-button issue for young people, especially recent grads. Just ask recent commencement speakers like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta. They got booed when they discussed the tech. (AI also dropped the ball trying to read names during one school’s graduation ceremony.)
One survey found that excitement toward AI has dropped 14% among 14- to 29-year-olds over the past year. Another survey found nearly half of Gen Zers (44%) had undermined or resisted their company’s AI strategy.
There’s still plenty of buy-in for the tech. Google CEO Sundar Pichai reported that AI Overviews in Google Search has over 2.5 billion monthly active users, while AI Mode has more than 1 billion monthly active users. Overall, Pichai said monthly usage of its AI products has increased sevenfold since last year.
Ultimately, Google and other tech giants don’t have much of a choice. They’ve bet so heavily on the tech that they need to keep pushing it on users to drive wider adoption.
But a good chunk of Gen Z growing to resent AI certainly won’t make that easy.
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