Snap Inc. and Google Cloud have expanded their strategic partnership to enhance the generative AI experiences within Snapchat’s AI-powered chatbot, My AI. This ongoing collaboration integrates Google’s Gemini on Vertex AI, enabling My AI to provide multimodal functionalities, such as processing and understanding different types of information like text, audio, images, videos, and even code.
This new capability allows users to perform tasks like translating a photo of a street sign while travelling or analysing a video to determine the healthiest snack option. The use of multimodal generative AI is aimed at creating more engaging and innovative features for Snapchat’s growing community.
Snapchat first launched on Google Cloud back in 2011 and has since evolved into a major platform with over 850 million monthly active users. Its continued emphasis on visually-driven communication has differentiated it from other platforms. This focus, along with its adoption of advanced AI technologies, has contributed to its renewed popularity. The introduction of Gemini on Vertex AI within My AI has already demonstrated business value for Snap, as it has led to more than 2.5 x times the engagement in the U.S. with Snapping to My AI.
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, emphasised the importance of this partnership with Google, stating, “This partnership with Google Cloud reinforces everything that’s so important to serving our community. Snap is all about empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. Now with Gemini in My AI, Snapchatters can learn so much more about the world, do it really quickly in the moment, and easily share that with friends.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, highlighted Snap’s leadership in digital communication and its current role in utilising generative AI. He stated, “Snap was an early leader in helping people communicate in a digital world, and now it is at the forefront of using generative AI to build agents that create new value for its community. Gemini models on Vertex AI are now powering millions of multimodal interactions in the Snapchat app every day that allow Snapchatters to better engage with My AI — with built-in accuracy and safety features.”
Why is this important
Snap’s ongoing partnership with Google Cloud, spanning more than a decade, continues to evolve, with the company leveraging Google’s data, analytics, and AI/ML technologies to fuel its renewed growth and helping shape the future customer experience.