Google plans to prioritize scaling its Gemini AI for consumers in the new year, CEO Sundar Pichai told employees during a strategy meeting held earlier this month. The company is facing increased competition from rivals like Perplexity and OpenAI as emerging AI technologies reinvent web search. The company has come under added scrutiny from federal regulators as well this year.
“I think 2025 will be critical,” Pichai remarked to employees assembled at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, as well as those attending virtually. “I think it’s really important we internalize the urgency of this moment, and need to move faster as a company. The stakes are high. These are disruptive moments. In 2025, we need to be relentlessly focused on unlocking the benefits of this technology and solve real user problems.”
To that end, Pichai announced that the company will introduce a number of new AI features in the first half of next year, as well as roll out an update for its highly anticipated Project Asta.
While Google enjoyed strong growth and revenue from its search ads and cloud products this year, recent legal rulings could significantly impact the company’s industry dominance in 2025. In August, Google lost an antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice and 38 state attorneys general when a federal judge found that the company illegally holds a monopoly in the search and text markets.
The DOJ subsequently requested in November that Google be compelled to divest from its Chrome browser division. The company also faces pressure from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority, which in September alleged that Google “has harmed competition by using its dominance in online display advertising to favor its own ad tech services.”
“It’s not lost on me that we are facing scrutiny across the world,” Pichai said. “It comes with our size and success. It’s part of a broader trend where tech is now impacting society at scale. So more than ever, through this moment, we have to make sure we don’t get distracted.”
“With the Gemini app, there is strong momentum, particularly over the last few months,” Pichai said. “But we have some work to do in 2025 to close the gap and establish a leadership position there as well.” Google is already investing heavily in AI efforts and those investments are likely to increase next year.
“Scaling Gemini on the consumer side will be our biggest focus next year,” he added.