Just a few years ago, Google was rated as lagging behind in the artificial intelligence race after the explosion of OpenAI with ChatGPT chatbot.
However, the current situation has changed rapidly. After a period of continuous upgrades, Google's Gemini chatbot is being considered one of ChatGPT's strongest competitors.
At the Google I/O 2026 event recently held, Google said that the number of regular users of Gemini has increased to 900 million in just one year, equal to the number of active users that OpenAI announced for ChatGPT.
This number also far exceeds the chatbot Claude of Anthropic, a platform that focuses more on corporate customers.
Unlike many other AI companies that are burdened with huge operating costs of data centers, Google has begun to leverage AI to boost online advertising revenue, which is the company's core business. In the latest quarter, Google's advertising revenue increased by 16%, reaching $77 billion thanks to AI tools that help advertisers better understand users' behaviors and preferences.
Another major advantage of Google is the ability to integrate AI into the entire product ecosystem. Instead of developing Gemini as a separate application, the company puts AI into Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps and search engines.
For example, Google Docs users can now ask Gemini to support writing speeches, adding anecdotes or personal stories.
In the tourism sector, Gemini is also directly connected to Google Flights and Google Hotels to support searching for air tickets, hotels and planning trips.
Google is also expanding its influence to Apple's ecosystem. The two companies previously confirmed that Gemini will become the AI platform for future versions of the Siri assistant on iPhone.
While Gemini is already pre-installed on Android, its appearance on iPhone may help Google's AI reach most global smartphone users.
According to analysts, this is a big difference between Google and other AI companies. Not only possessing a strong model, Google also has an advantage from a series of popular services with billions of users every day.
Mr. Gary Rivlin, an American journalist and author, specializing in technology, business and the social impacts of the digital technology industry, believes that if he had to choose the company with the greatest potential for victory in the AI field today, he would choose Google.
Experts believe that Google is showing the rare self-transformation ability of a long-standing technology corporation. In the past, many large companies like Microsoft have failed to maintain their positions when the technology market changed sharply, typically the smartphone race.
However, Google still faces many challenges. Some recent studies show that the company's AI answers still have a certain percentage of errors. However, Google said the system is constantly being improved to increase accuracy and user experience.
