It’s spring, and the cloud giants are raining heavily on AI’s gardens.
Last week, Google’s annual Cloud Next event was packed with AI-related updates including new features for enterprise adoption for content creation and personalization. However, the tech giant also announced new partnerships for its ecosystem with startups like Lytics and Pantheon, which will help marketers use generative AI to create personalized campaigns without third-party cookies. Google Cloud also announced a new partnership with Sarkana, which will help with data assets for media buying through Google’s BigQuery platform.
Google pushed for expanded partnerships with agency holding companies including Stegwell and WPP. With Stagwell, Google Cloud will power a new data cleanroom from the Stagwell Marketing Cloud. Google Cloud will also power WPP’s generative AI platform through the newly announced AI model Gemini 1.5 Pro. Overall, however, Google’s keynote was not just about advertising.
“I’m getting the sense that the cloud side doesn’t really want to lose things with advertising or the notion that it’s all part of the advertising model,” Gartner analyst Andrew Frank said after Google’s Cloud Next keynote. Monetizes traffic.” “I think they’re trying to be very intentional with enterprise applications and non-media applications.”
Lytics, a customer data platform, will allow marketers to combine first-party data to find relevant audiences while using Google’s Vertex AI platform to automate content based on what customers buy. and content in which they are likely to be interested. The tool uses an interest graph similar to the Topics API in Google’s privacy sandbox.
“You have these two really important data elements,” said James McDermott, CEO and co-founder of Litex. “What do I know about this customer, and what content do I have that I can provide that is meaningful and relevant to that person?”
Competitors were proactive with their updates. Microsoft said it is opening a new AI center in London and is also investing $2.9 billion in AI and cloud infrastructure in Japan. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Andy Joe’s annual shareholder letter said creative AI “could be the biggest technology shift since the cloud” and “maybe since the Internet.” One of the beneficiaries he mentioned was the cloud giant’s advertising business, which is adding features to use AI to create and customize images, ad copy and videos.
Beyond the Big Three, cloud data companies are also building their own ecosystems. For example, Snowflake debuted its new marketing data cloud with a number of partners such as Snap, Braze and others that will help with AI, personalization and other capabilities.
Tech giants’ investments in AI startups are also attracting more attention from regulators. Last week, the UK’s Competition Markets Authority released a new report outlining the key risks if tech companies restrict access to protect themselves from competition. (The CMA is the same watchdog that oversees the development of the privacy sandbox.) And on this side of the Atlantic, the US Department of Justice is reportedly investigating joint board members at various AI companies.
CMA CEO Sarah Cardwell said in a statement about the report: “The urgent challenge before us is to make this very exciting technology available to everyone while avoiding the potential abuse of market power and unintended consequences. How to use it to advantage.”
Indicators and products: AI news and announcements
- US Representative Adam Schiff introduced a new bill that would require AI companies to provide more transparency about the materials used in their foundation models. Goal: To provide better insight into how AI models are trained and whether they use copyrighted material.
- Utah’s governor signed a new AI disclosure law called the Utah AI Act, which will take effect next month.
- Slalom, a consultancy, launched a new tool to help different professions identify ways they can benefit from creative AI in their daily work.
- Meta announced a new AI chip aimed at helping power in-house AI workloads.
- Human released its new AI device called the AI Pin, but the $699 device was greeted with poor reviews.
- BBDO Energy and Bayer-owned skincare brand Bepanthen launched a new campaign in Mexico that uses AI to help children create cartoons that show their skin conditions.
1s and 0s: AI by numbers
- A new Morning Consult survey found that millennial workers are more likely to use generative AI than other American generations, including Gen Z.
- A new survey by SAP Emarsys found that 64% of shoppers believe AI has improved their retail experience, up from 51% last year.
- According to a recent Stanford University study, older language models are more likely to treat names differently based on race and gender.
- An AI analysis by IV.AI found that 76% of comments submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office expressed negative sentiments about AI and copyright. (Read more about the findings in last week’s Deep Dive story.)
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