Google Will Make You Use Their AI, Whether You Like It Or Not

"Right now, Google's revenue stream comes from advertising via its search monopoly. Search queries are cheap, and the ads Google sells are pricey due to its market power, so it's a very profitable business. Gemini, by contrast, is expensive to operate and generates no revenue. Even if Google were able to shift all of its search advertising revenue to Gemini, it would be moving from an extremely high-margin business to a lower-margin one. So what's actually going on?"

"The answer, as it turns out, is that Google may be seeking to become our central planner and price setter. The third announcement is the key tell. CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will sell not only marketing, but also price-coordinating services. In the documentation for the universal commerce protocol, Google lists "dynamic pricing" as a key tool for merchants. And Kroger, a partner of Google, already announced it will deploy Gemini, enriched with its own proprietary data, to do consumer pricing."

"Google is also creating a pilot of something called "direct offers." Rather than just buying advertising, businesses will pay to allow Google to set prices when it makes recommendations to users through Gemini. Here's how Google presents it: "With Direct Offers, retailers set up relevant offers they want to feature in their campaign settings, and Google will use AI to determine when an offe"

Gemini appears as an intrusive Gmail assistant that surfaces thread summaries and recommendations. Gemini is expensive to operate and generates no direct revenue compared with high-margin search advertising. Google is promoting services that coordinate pricing, including dynamic pricing in the universal commerce protocol, and partners like Kroger plan to deploy Gemini with proprietary data for consumer pricing. Google plans a pilot called Direct Offers where retailers set offers and Google's AI determines when to present them and may set prices as part of recommendations. Businesses would pay to allow Google to apply pricing when recommending items.

Read at Crooks and Liars