I, like many new Pixel 10 owners, had a few issues getting my free trial to Google AI Pro set up. However, after a few starts, I finally got it working, and it’s been smooth sailing from there on.
Smooth sailing, yes, but it’s not been a success for Google.
After having had the AI Pro trial for about a month now, I’ve had a chance to play with just about everything it offers — and frankly, I’m not sure if it’s worth the money.
That’s not because it’s bad, it’s because I can’t understand why anyone would pay for it.
Google AI Pro offers a lot
But it’s of limited value
I know more than is healthy about smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices, but I like to think I’m close to the average person when it comes to using AI.
I’ll ask AI basic questions when my hands are full, check in with the weather forecast, and do some actions while in the shower and listening to music.
Essentially, I use Gemini a bit, even if it’s not a core part of my life — and I suspect a lot of people are in a similar place.
And so, with my toes dipped into the AI pool, I was excited to try out Google’s AI Pro plan for free, for a year. But after trying it out for myself, I’m not sure what I was excited about.
Take access to improved models of Gemini. I actually don’t know how much of an improvement this offers over the basic (and free) option I had access to before. If I used AI as a search engine (and you shouldn’t), would this be an obvious upgrade? I have no idea.
The same issue applies to image and video generation. The chance to get access to Google’s newest and fastest models for generating videos seems like a good upgrade, and so does the increased number of credits to burn. Great!
Except, using the faster model seems to burn around ten times more credits than the slower models, which, er, means it’ll probably average out to the same number of videos across a month.
And frankly, how often am I expected to be making AI videos and images anyway? Maybe I’m boring, but I haven’t felt the need to create a single AI image or video since the technology left its infancy.
Well, what about NotebookLM then? Um, embarrassingly, I’ve never really figured out what it’s for.
Sure, it’s a “research tool.” Great. But how am I meant to use it, and, crucially, why?
I’ve never quite been able to figure out where NotebookLM fits into my life, and while I’m sure it’s exceptionally useful for some people, it’s always seemed weirdly obtuse to me. Like it doesn’t want just anyone using it. And I am apparently not the person it wants.
So, more NotebookLM does not appeal to me, and, as I continue to suspect, it likely doesn’t appeal to the “average” person either.
And for the love of Pete, those niche features don’t stop there either.
Gemini can code for you! Except I have little interest in coding, and if I did, I suspect I would know better than to rely on AI to do it, not least because I’d rather avoid Gemini having a mental breakdown on me.
But maybe it can be used to help an amateur code a website, or build an app, or something? I mean, yeah, I guess?
But given AI’s track record with coding is not great, you’d need to learn enough about coding to know when the AI has messed up. Which rather defeats the point of doing it in the first place.
Which leaves me with Gemini access in GSuite. And I’m sorry, but I don’t care about Gemini in Docs, Sheets, or Gmail.
AI needs to offer mainstream appeal if it’s going to stick around
AI Pro just isn’t it
AI is supposed to be the next big thing in tech. It’s meant to be a massive paradigm shift, akin to the introduction of the iPhone.
However, if all these companies have to offer are increasingly niche features, upgrades that require research to understand, or tools you can’t see the point of, then AI will never reach its potential heights.
Ultimately, AI has to make money to justify its existence, and AI Pro should be one of Google’s primary ways of doing that. It’s Google’s cheapest AI subscription, but to my eye, it doesn’t deliver enough to be tempting.
It’s not a feature problem, as a lot of this stuff could be useful — it’s a marketing one. Marketing has to be clear and concise.
The oft-quoted golden rule of marketing is that you have your audience’s attention for three to eight seconds. If you can’t win them over in that time, then you’ve failed.
So far, it seems that Google’s AI Pro subscription fails that fundamental test.
AI as a whole has too many buzzwords, too many “upgrades” that aren’t immediately obvious. If people can’t immediately figure out what they want from AI, then AI isn’t doing well as a product.
At this point, it feels like the concept of AI is more tempting than the experience of using AI — and that’s the opposite of what we want if AI is to be useful, widespread, and importantly, profitable.
That’s where Google AI Pro falls apart for me. Could I use more of it? Probably. But is it worth me forcing it into my lifestyle to accommodate it and pay for the privilege of doing so? Absolutely not.
