The short version

Ben Thompson predicted on February 18, 2025: ““Obviously, Google has tremendous AI capabilities both in terms of infrastructure and research, and generative AI is a sustaining innovation for its display advertising business and its cloud business.”” Verdict: Called it. Google has integrated generative AI across its ads and cloud products. Google's ad revenue and cloud revenue continued to grow through…

Prediction by

Ben Thompson

On February 18, 2025

““Obviously, Google has tremendous AI capabilities both in terms of infrastructure and research, and generative AI is a sustaining innovation for its display advertising business and its cloud business.””

Follow-up

Google has integrated generative AI across its ads and cloud products. Google's ad revenue and cloud revenue continued to grow through 2025 into 2026, and company commentary consistently frames generative AI as an enhancement to core ad and cloud offerings, not a disruptive replacement.

From the High Caliber AI network — see the AI for PR module in the course.