At the 2025 World Government Summit in Dubai, Google & Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai joined H.E. Omar Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, for a virtual fireside chat. The discussion centered on Google’s AI-first strategy, its dedication to long-term investments in foundational technologies, and the cultural elements driving Google’s innovation.

Pichai emphasized Google’s commitment to making AI broadly accessible, stating, “Intelligence is going to be widely available. This technology is going to be at everyone’s fingertips, and it’s going to impact the world profoundly.” He highlighted Google’s AI-powered products, reaching over 2 billion users, from Maps and Search to Android, and its recent advancements with the Gemini models.

The conversation touched upon Google’s progress in Quantum computing, with Pichai expressing excitement about its potential: “The progress in Quantum is palpably exciting…In a 5 to 10 year time frame, I think you will see start practically useful quantum computers.” He noted Google’s ability to perform a computation in 5 minutes that would have taken the world’s fastest supercomputers over 10 septillion years, signifying a major breakthrough in error correction for large-scale quantum computers.

Pichai also addressed the competitive landscape in search, acknowledging the emergence of AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT. He affirmed Google’s strong growth in search, driven by AI overviews. “With the kind of agentic capabilities that it’ll have, you can not only ask questions, you can get things done. I think it can help you be much more productive across a range of domains.” he said.

Discussing Waymo, Google’s self-driving car initiative, Pichai highlighted its safety record and expansion plans, aiming to serve 10 new cities in 2025 and conduct international testing in Japan. He emphasized the importance of collaboration with regulators worldwide to scale the technology.

Pichai also shared insights into Google’s culture of innovation, crediting its founders’ ambitious framework and the encouragement of risk-taking and experimentation: “You have to have an optimistic culture, a culture of curiosity…You encourage optimism, you really push people to take risks, and you don’t punish failures.” He also noted Google’s approach to project management, emphasizing long-term investments in core technologies like AI and Quantum, while remaining agile and adaptable in product development, willing to “course correct” when necessary.

Finally, Pichai discussed Google’s internal AI adoption, encouraging employees to use AI tools and integrating them into various business processes: “To answer your question, yes, we deeply encourage people to use AI, and we measure it, we track it, and when we find solutions that work, we bring it to our cloud partners as solutions for them to try in their companies.” He highlighted AI-powered coding assistance, with AI suggestions being accepted for 25% of all code written by Google engineers.

https://www.cio.com/article/3825674/sundar-pichai-googles-ai-vision-takes-center-stage-in-dubai.html