This week Google hosted it’s annual I/O developer conference. On day one, the company focused on their innovation in the artificial intelligence space. On day two, they talked about new VR products. Here’s our take on what the latest out of Mountain View means for the future of AI and VR.

• Day One: AI. At Google I/O, Google lived up to it’s commitment to be an AI-first company. The company announced a slew of AI innovations focused on making their platform easier to use with more natural interfaces including voice (Google Assistant) and vision (Google Lens). For example, Google Assistant now includes support for calendars, phone communication, and proactive alerts, closing a gap we identified in our work on home assistants. Proactive alerts for voice-based assistants is a big step towards a screenless future. Google Home now flashes when it has relevant and timely information. For example: [*Google Home flashes*] “Traffic is heavier than usual. Leave in the next five minutes to be sure you make it to Anna’s soccer game on time.” In the screenless future, friction-less information push represents the future of search technology. Google is still in the best position to own the category given its organization of the world’s information. Google’s progress in the fields of computer vision (Google Lens) and cloud-based supercomputing/machine learning (Google Compute Engine) positions the company for success as we transition to more natural and immersive computing. It’s no coincidence that day one ended with a tease for a standalone VR headset, untethered to a PC or a smartphone. For more, see the 10 min condensed version of all the day one announcements here.
• Day Two: VR. The big news on day two was the announcement of a standalone VR headset untethered to a PC or smartphone for computing power. Google is partnering with Qualcomm to build a reference headset and announced partnerships with HTC and Lenovo to bring standalone VR headsets to market later this year. Google also addressed a common knock on VR: given the full enclosure of VR headsets, VR experiences are hard to share with others. Google is making VR more social with shared rooms and voice chat as replacements for the text-based comments familiar to PC users. These advancements will help make VR mainstream faster. The transition from PC- and smartphone-driven VR to standalone VR will take 3-5 years (we don’t expect real traction – 1m units – until 2019), but the transition has clearly begun.

Bottom line: Google’s investments in AI and VR will accelerate the transition from computing on PCs and touchscreen devices into the future marked by immersive computing.