As companies’ AI budgets hit millions of dollars, Google may finally have ‘advantage’ that the company has been working for 20-plus years

Google is promoting its Gemini 3.5 Flash model as a cost-saving alternative to expensive frontier AI systems. CEO Sundar Pichai stated that shifting 80% of AI workloads to a mix of Flash and other models could save major Google Cloud customers over $1 billion annually. This focus on affordability comes as businesses increasingly scrutinize rising AI spending.