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- Google’s AI Strategy Is Working 🤫
Google’s AI Strategy Is Working 🤫
What top companies are doing while others are still debating
Reading time: 5 minutes
As the year comes to a close, we want to slow things down for a moment.
Thank you for being here. For reading closely. For responding thoughtfully. For treating this newsletter as a place to think, not just consume.
AI is no longer something happening “out there.”
It is shaping how organizations commit capital, how platforms choose partners, and how individuals decide where to place their attention and effort.
2026 will not be defined by surprise breakthroughs.
It will be defined by the quality of decisions made quietly, right now.
This edition looks at three moments where those decisions are becoming visible. Not through announcements alone, but through positioning, alignment, and long-term intent.
If you care about understanding direction rather than noise, this one is for you.
Let’s get into it.
🗞️In this edition
Google rose to the top in the AI race
China Is Organizing AI Adoption Across Entire Industries
OpenAI moves closer to the real economy
In other AI news –
Meta acquires Manus to strengthen its AI capabilities
Universal Music Group partners with Roblox
PayPal and Venmo provide access to Perplexity Pro
4 must-try AI tools
What's happening:
Google is being recognized as a leader in AI, not because it surprised the market, but because it steadily absorbed AI into places people already rely on.
Search, productivity tools, cloud services, and everyday workflows are quietly evolving at once.
Nothing dramatic. Nothing viral. Everything consistent.
Why this is important:
The most powerful shifts in technology rarely announce themselves loudly.
Google’s position highlights a truth many overlook.
Leadership in AI is not about convincing people to change habits. It is about changing outcomes without asking them to notice.
When AI improves results without demanding new behavior, resistance fades. Evaluation stops. Dependence grows.
Our personal take on it at OpenTools:
What stands out here is not Google’s speed, but its patience.
Most companies treat AI as a product problem. Google treats it as an environmental change. Instead of forcing users into new behaviors, it reshapes the conditions around existing ones.
That distinction matters.
When technology asks people to adapt, adoption is fragile.
When technology adapts to people, adoption becomes irreversible.
Google’s real strength is not model quality. It is its ability to let AI arrive without demanding attention, explanation, or trust-building. The trust already exists.
This suggests something deeper about the next phase of AI leadership.
The winners will not be those who convince users that AI is powerful.
They will be those who make AI unavoidable without being intrusive.
If you are making long-term bets, this is the pattern to study. Not excitement curves, but behavioral inertia. That is where endurance is built.
What's happening:
OpenAI is investing in Managed Service Providers, placing itself closer to the organizations that already run technology operations for thousands of businesses.
This is not about end users or feature differentiation.
It is about who influences adoption decisions at scale.
MSPs decide what gets implemented, maintained, trusted, and renewed. OpenAI is choosing proximity to that decision layer.
Why this is important:
Most AI conversations focus on capability. This move is about behavior.
When AI enters through service relationships rather than direct choice, it changes how organizations experience it. AI becomes something you inherit, not something you evaluate from scratch.
That shifts responsibility, accountability, and momentum.
The future of AI will not be shaped only by builders or buyers, but by the actors who sit between them and translate complexity into defaults.
That layer is becoming decisive.
Our personal take on it at OpenTools:
Growth now depends less on persuasion and more on placement.
Less on excitement and more on trust.
If you are trying to understand where influence accumulates next, stop watching demos and start watching intermediaries.
What's happening:
China hosted an AI-focused industry event in Guangxi centered on applying AI across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, agriculture, and energy.
The emphasis was not on showcasing innovation. It was on alignment.
Government, industry leaders, and platforms were operating from the same assumption. AI is already part of the system. The task now is coordination.
Why this is important:
Instead of asking whether AI should be adopted, the conversation is about how to synchronize adoption across sectors so that gains compound rather than fragment.
This approach trades flexibility for momentum.
It favors direction over debate.
And over long periods of time, momentum matters.
Our personal take on it at OpenTools:
This is not about comparison or competition.
It is about recognizing that different regions are optimizing for different outcomes. Some optimize for innovation speed. Others for systemic coherence.
Understanding those differences is essential if you want to make informed decisions about where opportunity, stability, and risk will concentrate over the next decade.
Meta acquires Manus to strengthen its AI capabilities. – Inside the article is a reminder that as AI matures, fewer companies will build independently. Many will be absorbed into larger strategic narratives.
Universal Music Group partners with Roblox. – This collaboration hints at how creativity, identity, and monetization are being reshaped for digital-native generations.
PayPal and Venmo provide access to Perplexity Pro. – This is how AI usage spreads. Not through evangelism, but through inclusion in services people already trust.
Mixus AI - Mixus lets you describe a task in plain language, then builds an AI agent that connects to your tools, runs the workflow for you, and keeps you in full control with review and approval at every step.
Prompt Storm - Google Chrome extension with pre-written prompts for ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude
Pictory - Converts your long form content such as text scripts or articles into highly-engaging branded videos with stock footage
Careered - An online platform that helps users creates cover letters from resumes and job listings
We are entering a phase where AI progress is less visible, but more consequential.
The biggest advantages will not come from reacting faster to news.
They will come from understanding where alignment, trust, and positioning are quietly taking shape.
That is the perspective we bring at OpenTools.
If something in this edition sharpened your thinking, reply and tell us.
Your feedback directly influences what we explore next.
The OpenTools Team
PS. As 2026 approaches, clarity will matter more than confidence. The people who do best will not be the loudest. They will be the ones who chose carefully while others were distracted.
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