Google aims to accelerate SMB growth with new AI-driven cloud strategy

At its Cloud Next event in Las Vegas, Google signals a renewed focus on small and mid-sized businesses by highlighting AI innovations, dedicated sessions, and a $750 million fund to foster SMB adoption of its cloud and AI services.

Google is making a determined push to turn its cloud and AI businesses into a stronger home for small and mid-sized companies, using last week’s Cloud Next event in Las Vegas to signal that SMBs are now central to its strategy. The company said attendance ran to about 32,000 people, with small-business visitors in the thousands, and it deliberately built a dedicated 13-session SMB track to make the conference feel more relevant to that audience.

That emphasis comes as Google tries to close the gap with larger rivals in cloud infrastructure and widen the appeal of its workplace software, which has billions of users but far fewer paying customers than Microsoft 365. The company’s case is that artificial intelligence gives it a chance to reset the competitive order, particularly among smaller firms that are only beginning to move beyond basic experimentation and into operational use.

According to Google Cloud executives and partners at the event, the pitch rests on breadth as much as brand. Google says it can offer the full stack, from chips and infrastructure through to models, productivity software and security tools, while also keeping its platform open enough to work with other vendors. Partners interviewed at the conference said that combination matters in a market where many customers want to adopt AI without ripping out existing systems.

The centrepiece of that strategy is Gemini Enterprise and the wider agentic AI push. Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian has said revenue from Gemini Enterprise rose 40% sequentially quarter-on-quarter, while the company is also embedding Gemini into security products and Workspace. For SMBs, Google is leaning on simplicity, no-code tools and prebuilt connectors as it tries to make AI adoption feel less like an engineering project and more like a business upgrade.

Google is also backing the push with money. The company has created a $750 million fund to accelerate channel development in agentic AI, including training, enablement and deal support for partners. Phil Larson, who leads Google Cloud’s partner network, said the aim is to build an ecosystem around customers’ AI transformations, while several partners welcomed the scale of the commitment as a sign that Google is serious about competing for their attention.

Still, the company faces the same challenge that has dogged many platform shifts: turning interest into durable channel loyalty. Google wants partners involved in every deal, and Sharon Prosser, who oversees SMB sales, said transactions with partners are larger and close more often. But she also acknowledged the company is not yet where it wants to be. For now, the opportunity is obvious; whether Google can convert it into long-term SMB leadership will depend on execution as much as technology.

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Source: Fuse Wire Services