Google Next ‘24 Recap – Keep solving tomorrow’s challenges

We’re still feeling the energy after Google Cloud Next ‘24! As one of the most anticipated events in the tech industry, Next ’24, held in Las Vegas, provided a platform for innovative minds to come together and explore the latest advancements in cloud technology. Google made a total of 218 announcements. We’ve summarized a few of the most pivotal announcements and highlighted our favorite sessions below.
Google Cloud Continues to Be the Fastest Growing Cloud Provider
More than 1,000 product advancements have been made since Google Cloud Next ’23 which took place only 7 months ago!
Many large enterprises have Google-powered AI apps and experiences in production, including McDonald’s, Deutsche Bank, HCA Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, US Steel, Goldman Sachs, Mercedes-Benz, Uber, Walmart, Wayfair, and Palo Alto Networks.
Google Workspace & AI Announcements
- In a recent benchmarking study, Google Meet outperformed Microsoft Teams, Zoom, & WebEx in overall video and audience performance
- Google Vids, a key part of Google Workspace innovations, is a new AI-powered video creation app for work that sits alongside Docs, Sheets & Slides. Vids will be released to Workspace Labs in June.
- Gemini for Google Workspace – AI-powered assistant built right into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, & more
- Introducing:
- Take Notes For Me (Meet)
- Chat Summarization (Chat)
- Real-Time Translation (Meet)
- AI Security Add-On (Drive)
- Introducing:
- The crowd cheered at the availability of Gemini 1.5 Pro in public preview in Vertex AI, bringing the world’s largest context window to developers everywhere.
- Imagen 2.0 helps businesses create images as well as 4-second live images from text prompts to match specific brand requirements. It’s now generally available in Vertex AI.
- Text-to-Live Images leverages AI to generate live product images, ads, gifs, storyboards, & more. It’s currently in preview.
Session Highlights
- “The C-Suite Dilemma: Generative AI and its applications,” was a great session, consisting of real customer journeys in implementing GenAI in their orgs” shares Blake Jines-Storey, a Senior Account Executive with Wursta. “Two banking customers spoke, but the information was applicable to all industries. If anything, non-regulated business should be able to move faster.”
- “The breakout session Level-up your sales, marketing, and customer service with Gemini for Google Workspace by Tony Majewski and Donato Meli was excellent,” according to Jines-Storey. “Seeing their enablement and journey with Gemini would be very helpful for most customers.”
- “Boost retail sales and conversions with application integration,” was a breakout session in which Wursta’s own Matt Howitt, Sr. Solutions Architect, presented along with Google Cloud professionals. Attendees learned how Google Cloud’s application integration solutions create seamless customer journeys, enhance personalization, and optimize retail search using real-time data.
- “Small business, big impact: How SMBs achieve more with Workspace and Gemini,” was a panel of SMB leaders sharing how their teams use Workspace to punch above their weight – from iterating faster with real-time collaboration in Docs, Sheets, and Slides to expanding their capabilities with Gemini.
Security Operations & Core Infrastructure Announcements
- Gemini in Security Operations — Leverage AI to ensure necessary controls, protect models & agents from cyberattacks, and enable SecOps teams to prevent/detect/respond faster
- Gemini in Threat Intelligence, in public preview, allows you to tap into Mandiant’s frontline threat intelligence using conversational search.
- Google Axion Processors are Google’s first custom Arm®-based CPUs designed for the data center. Axion delivers industry-leading performance and energy efficiency and will be available to Google Cloud customers later this year.
Wusta at Google Cloud Next ‘24
Wursta hosted a booth at the expo where our client Facecake demonstrated their Latest AI Innovation, AVA which was unveiled at the conference. We also hosted a fun networking get-together at Mandalay Bay. Congrats to those attendees who walked away as winners! Check out our event recap video below.
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