Google Gemini chatbot is coming to customer service interactions near you

More and more companies are choosing to deploy AI chatbots to handle basic customer service inquiries. At the Google Cloud Next conference in Las Vegas, the company revealed the Gemini-powered chatbots its partners are developing, some of which you might eventually interact with. Best Buy, for example, is using Google’s technology to build a virtual assistant that can help you troubleshoot product issues and reschedule order delivery. IHG Hotels & Resorts is developing another product to help you plan your vacation in its mobile app, while Mercedes-Benz is using Gemini to improve its own smart sales assistant.

Security company ADT is also building an agent that can help you set up your home security system. If you happen to be a radiologist, you might end up interacting with Bayer’s Gemini-powered app for diagnostic help. Meanwhile, other partners are using Gemini to create less customer-facing experiences: Cintas, Discover and Verizon are using generative AI capabilities in different ways to help their customer service agents find information faster and easier.

Google also launched Vertex AI Agency Builder, which it said will help developers “easily build and deploy enterprise-grade artificial intelligence experiences” such as OpenAI’s GPT and Microsoft’s Copilot Studio. Builder will provide developers with a set of tools they can use for their projects, including a code-free console that can understand natural language and build Gemini-based AI agents in minutes. Of course, Vertex AI has more advanced tools for more complex projects, but their common goal is to simplify the creation and maintenance of personalized AI chatbots and experiences.

At the same event, Google also released a new artificial intelligence video generator for Workspace and the first ARM-based CPU specifically built for data centers. By launching the latter, it is competing with Amazon, which has been using its Graviton processors to power its cloud network for the past few years.