All the dominant technology companies are integrating generative AI into their online services, from Google to Meta, Microsoft and Apple.

Google’s recent integrations of Bard, its chat-based AI tool, with a host of Google apps and services is one example of moving generative AI more directly into consumer life via text, image, and voice interactions. Bundled with everything from Gmail, Docs, and Drive to Google Maps, YouTube, Google Flights and hotels, Bard has the potential to act as a super-charged version of Google Assistant, culling enormous amounts of data online but personalizing responses to individual user data, all while working in a conversational, natural-language mode. Summarizing emails, booking trips, creating shopping lists — anything that might be done by a personal assistant — for people who don’t have a personal assistant.