Google: the next 20 years

The company that started life as Google 20 years ago, now called Alphabet, is now built around three concepts: machine learning, machine learning and machine learning. For the coming years, it will be the central concept, the light that will guide the redesign of all the company’s products and services: one out of every 10 words the company says is about the concept. Google has trained all its staff, from the bottom up, in machine learning, because it believes its future is about its differentiating potential, to the possibility that its products and services are capable of learning faster than those of its competitors.

What can we expect over the next 20 years from a company that has already made such a clearly defined commitment today? Logically, that all its products and services will be restructured around machine learning and therefore its only goal will be to adapt to its customers’ needs. Google Assistant is a clear example of this, and has progressed remarkably, but it has plenty of other products and services with incredible potential: no one knows what new lines Alphabet will deploy as a holding company in a period as long as two decades, but it’s already redefining transportation through Waymo, will transition to preventive health care through Calico and Verily and rethink cybersecurity through Chronicle, to mention just a few of the companies in a portfolio that also includes a subsidiary dedicated to machine learning, Deep Mind.

In summary: in 20 years, I believe that Alphabet will be a large business conglomerate providing products and services adapted to our needs thanks to the possibilities offered by machine learning.

(En español, aquí)