Google is bringing back Nest to the forefront of its campaign to make smart homes supported by hardware, software, and services built around artificial intelligence or AI.
Google's move was made in the wake of projections that AI on tech products and services will be the wave of the future. Companies will scramble to take a piece of the burgeoning pie that experts predict could lead into the creation of a trillion-dollar industry.
Nest, Google said, will be called back from the company's lower-profile divisions to serve a bigger role.
"Today we're excited to make Nest an integral part of Google's big bet on hardware," the search engine company announced in a joint blog post.
In the same post, it was indicated that teams from Google and Nest will closely collaborate to realize the common goal of building on the gains so far achieved by the company's AI thrust with Google Assistant taking a central role in the project's implementation.
"We're excited to bring the Nest and Google Hardware teams together. The goal is to supercharge Nest's mission: to create a more thoughtful home, one that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it. By working together, we'll continue to combine hardware, software and services to create a home that's safer, friendlier to the environment, smarter and even helps you save money," the blog post said.
Internet Of Things
The latest push by Google appears directly linked to the growing interest on the Internet of Things (IoT) concept that will be largely fueled by AI technology. If the current trend will continue, IoT is seen to generate a sub-economy that prod consumer spending by up to $1 trillion over the next two years.
By 2022, AI-focused devices will have amounted to total revenue of no less than $50 billion, which is a huge leap from the $31 billion already spent on smart home gadgets by the end of 2017. It's quite obvious that Google will want a key role on IoT's growth with its own brand of AI technology.
Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz is convinced Google will be able to leverage its AI capabilities on this new thrust as attested by the company's previous gains in the same platform such as advances in the facial recognition area.
Challenging The Market Leader
Google's vision, however, of taking the lead in the smart home products market will point the company on a direct collision course with Apple and Amazon. As of now, Apple is the least of Google's problems as the former is essentially a newbie in the field with its Siri-powered HomePod speaker just about to roll out.
The more daunting task is to topple Amazon's Echo speaker line and the increasingly ubiquitous Alexa voice assistant. The e-commerce company has managed to grab the lead by offering affordable AI solutions with the Alexa-Echo combo approach, which Google has to match by packaging Nest products, the Google Home smart devices, and its Google Assistant as the more compelling alternatives.
