This article summarizes the cost increases for various levels of Google Workspace plans in easy to read tables. These changes are being forced onto all customers, even if they don’t want to use the AI features.
Google is essentially using this forced price increase to kill their AI competitors by stealing their revenue through illegal bundling - just like Microsoft did with Teams to attack Slack illegally. They’re forcing everyone to pay for their AI product without choice to select competitors, just because they’re using some other existing product of Google’s. This effectively makes it so that no other company can charge these customers for a different AI product. After all, if your company’s spending goes up because of this Google price increase, your executives will not want to see double spending on AI products. So all those deserving smaller companies will simply miss out on these customers.
I encourage everyone to call/write to their state’s AG (https://www.usa.gov/state-attorney-general) and also the FTC (https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/ant...), to complain about this change. It’s an anti competitive strategy, which in an ideal world would see Google facing a crushing antitrust lawsuit from the FTC and DOJ. I am not sure that they’ll face any repercussions under the new administration, however.
Google is essentially using this forced price increase to kill their AI competitors by stealing their revenue through illegal bundling - just like Microsoft did with Teams to attack Slack illegally. They’re forcing everyone to pay for their AI product without choice to select competitors, just because they’re using some other existing product of Google’s. This effectively makes it so that no other company can charge these customers for a different AI product. After all, if your company’s spending goes up because of this Google price increase, your executives will not want to see double spending on AI products. So all those deserving smaller companies will simply miss out on these customers.
I encourage everyone to call/write to their state’s AG (https://www.usa.gov/state-attorney-general) and also the FTC (https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/ant...), to complain about this change. It’s an anti competitive strategy, which in an ideal world would see Google facing a crushing antitrust lawsuit from the FTC and DOJ. I am not sure that they’ll face any repercussions under the new administration, however.