Google doesn't know what's the point of its consumer AI tools

Imagine you're one of the most advanced companies worldwide on AI technology and, at the same time, one of the largest, richest businesses on the planet with near infinite money for marketing and running ad campaigns. What would you pick as the perfect consumer use case for your AI technology to run an ad with during the Olympics? In terms of innovation management, what would be the perfect problem to illustrate the remarkable added value your AI product will unlock for the rest of us?

Google decided to go with this ad:

Are you throwing in your mouth a little bit? I know I did.

The cluelessness of trying to force an AI interaction between a young girl and her idol, making sure to kill the spontaneous and heartfelt vibe completely, is pretty much beyond words.

So, yes, Google has removed the ad from the rotation of ads they use this summer since then. However, this still speaks volumes about how commercial AI tools are currently a perfect illustration of Gartner's hype curve. We reached the peak of inflated expectations, and tech operators are still struggling to find use cases that really stick with the market on the B2C side.

I feel this mostly reflects how bad these giant U.S. tech companies have become at feeling the consumer zeitgeist and are mostly seeking quick financial wins.

There is clearly no big strategic move beyond this "vision" of what AI should be for consumers. Just like with Meta's Metaverse (you still remember we were all supposed to navigate our emails in VR those days, right?) or Apple's Vision Pro, Google is pushing things out there, inventing stupid problems to force their tech solutions into.