Google's AI Comeback: A Year After Bard, Gemini Shines

Google's AI Renaissance: From Bard's Stumbles to Gemini's Success

Google strategically redirected its AI development to enhance its existing ecosystem

Initially blindsided by ChatGPT's emergence and criticized for early AI missteps, Google has engineered a remarkable transformation within just twelve months, establishing itself as a formidable competitor in consumer AI technologies.

"Many investors had dismissed Alphabet in the artificial intelligence competition," noted Matt Britzman, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, referring to Google's parent organization. "That perspective proved premature."

Google rushed to introduce its ChatGPT rival, Bard, in March 2023, four months after OpenAI's groundbreaking release shocked the tech industry.

During Bard's debut presentation, the AI assistant made a factual error regarding the James Webb telescope, drawing widespread criticism from global audiences.

Following this incident, numerous financial analysts downgraded Alphabet's stock recommendations, concerned that ChatGPT would challenge Google's long-standing search engine supremacy.

Fast forward to May 2024, when the Silicon Valley powerhouse launched AI Overviews within Google Search, only to face online ridicule again after the feature suggested bizarre recipes involving glue for pizza and recommended consuming rocks daily.

Despite investing heavily in AI technology for over ten years—acquiring DeepMind in 2014 and publishing influential research papers that laid groundwork for ChatGPT's development—Google continued to face setbacks.

Much of Google's artificial intelligence work "concentrated on enhancing its existing platforms rather than delivering direct consumer-facing services," observed Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight.

Ted Mortonson, an analyst at financial services company Baird, suggested Google's leadership was "caught unprepared" and had become "excessively confident" about their technological advantage in AI.

Shifting momentum

Amid this challenging period, significant changes were underway. Google co-founder Sergey Brin was spotted returning to company headquarters, and a substantial internal reorganization commenced.

By spring 2024, Google consolidated its AI teams under a unified Google DeepMind division led by Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis.

"Integrating these teams required considerable effort," CEO Sundar Pichai explained during an appearance on the "Lex Fridman Podcast" in early June.

The company also needed time to deploy its proprietary AI processors, the TPUs (Tensor Processing Units), which were crucial for realizing Google's ambitious goals.

"Internally, I could clearly see our positive trajectory," Pichai added.

Despite the "glue pizza" errors—known as hallucinations in AI terminology—AI Overviews marked the beginning of Google's comeback.

The company then commercially launched NotebookLM, a digital document tool capable of transforming uploaded content into comprehensible writing or even conversational podcasts.

At Google's developer conference in May 2025, the company unveiled its video generation tool Veo 3, which impressed with its accuracy and reliability, alongside AI Mode, a feature that completed the evolution of traditional search into a ChatGPT-style conversational interface.

August brought a new Pixel smartphone release featuring AI capabilities for 100x zoom and real-time translation. By mid-September, the company had integrated video generation tools into YouTube.

"Today's AI solutions, particularly from Google, deliver practical value in everyday scenarios, rather than just functioning as technology demonstrations," emphasized Avi Greengart from Techsponential.

With Pixel, "Google has established itself as the leader in AI hardware," Wood observed.

Google reinforced its position with Gemini's integrated image editing feature, informally dubbed Nano Banana, which became so popular that Gemini surpassed ChatGPT in iPhone downloads for the first time this month.

Google's prospects further improved when a federal judge rejected government demands to divest its Chrome browser during a search monopoly trial in early September.

Highlighting this momentum shift, Apple is reportedly considering implementing Gemini to enhance its AI assistant Siri, according to Bloomberg.

A partnership with the iPhone manufacturer would provide Google with an additional revenue stream, though "monetization of its AI offerings remains somewhat uncertain," noted Greengart.

"Google is implementing a long-term strategy," explained Wood. "Currently, it recognizes the necessity of offering free services to build consumer engagement with Gemini. However, the company anticipates transforming this engagement into substantial revenue opportunities in the future."