Google CEO Sundar Pichai Reportedly Bets Big on Gemini and AI, Says ‘2025 Will Be Critical’

Google is reportedly considering 2025 as a critical year and wants to heavily bet on artificial intelligence (AI) and Gemini to disrupt the existing landscape. As per the report, the company CEO Sundar Pichai told employees that the next year will be disruptive and Google will look to scale the consumer side of Gemini at a strategy meeting held on December 18. The statements arrive at a time when the Mountain View-based tech giant faces several regulatory scrutinies in multiple countries.

Google CEO Says “Stakes are High” in 2025

According to a CNBC report, Pichai and other company leaders discussed the opportunities in the AI space and how Google can tap into it to aggressively scale its AI products including the in-house chatbot Gemini.

The publication claimed to have obtained audio recordings of the strategy meeting where the CEO said, “The stakes are high. These are disruptive moments. In 2025, we need to be relentlessly focused on unlocking the benefits of this technology and solve real user problems.”

Pichai also reportedly told the employees that they needed to “internalise the urgency of this moment” and move faster as a company. As to where the focus would be, he said to have highlighted that building a big new business is the top priority of the tech giant. He also hinted at the ambition of scaling Gemini to make it a competitive alternative to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

He reportedly added, “With the Gemini app, there is strong momentum, particularly over the last few months. But we have some work to do in 2025 to close the gap and establish a leadership position there as well.” The company reportedly wants to make Gemini the 16th Google product to hit the 500 million users milestone. Pichai reportedly admitted that scaling Gemini on the consumer side is a big focus area for the company.

Notably, these comments come at a time when the company's existing businesses have attracted regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries. The US DOJ antitrust case against Google for paying $20 billion (roughly Rs. 1.7 lakh crore) a year to Apple to remain the default search option on iPhone devices is still ongoing. Additionally, authorities are also trying to make the company divest its Chrome browser division and have issued objections on its online ad running practices.

Addressing these issues, Pichai reportedly said, “It's not lost on me that we are facing scrutiny across the world. It comes with our size and success. It's part of a broader trend where tech is now impacting society at scale. So more than ever, through this moment, we have to make sure we don't get distracted.”