Google is not selling AI anymore. Or at least, not the way it was.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article sharing my belief that the era of “Pricing AI” as we knew it was coming to an end. My perspective was that AI would increasingly shift from being a standalone, highly marketable innovation to becoming “just another feature” integrated seamlessly into broader tools and platforms.
The real challenge would then lie in critical thinking—deciding how to use AI effectively to bring value, rather than AI = value by default.
This also triggers the necessity to think about the “Price tag carrier” in more critical terms. Can AI carry the price?
Now, Google has reinforced this view with its latest announcement: Google is adding AI to its Workspace subscriptions rather than selling access to Gemini on its own.
In other words, a few things are changing:
✅ Google is writing off 32 USD/month per user for this product!
✅ AI is not the price carrier anymore
✅ AI monetization shifts from feature (Gemini) to value (where it’s used)
✅ Google Workspace subscription price is rising (+2 USD/user per month)
✅ Bundled pricing (Google Workspace + Gemini) will help arbitrate between customers who put more or less value on traditional vs AI-assisted workplace
For those working on pricing AI / AI-powered software, this opens a few questions:
✅ How do we position and price AI features when they become commonplace?
✅ How do we differentiate products when AI is no longer a USP but a hygiene factor?
✅ What frameworks do we need to ensure we’re pricing for value rather than novelty?
✅ Do we understand price bundling and how does it affect our product?
This is very much expected … and will bring AI pricing to a new level.
What do you think? Have you seen similar moves for other products? How are you preparing?
My name is Salva, I am a product exec and Senior Partner at Reasonable Product, a boutique Product Advisory Firm.
I write about product pricing, e-commerce/marketplaces, subscription models, and modern product organizations. I mainly engage and work in tech products, including SaaS, Marketplaces, and IoT (Hardware + Software).
My superpower is to move between ambiguity (as in creativity, innovation, opportunity, and ‘thinking out of the box’) and structure (as in ‘getting things done’ and getting real impact).
I am firmly convinced that you can help others only if you have lived the same challenges: I have been lucky enough to practice product leadership in companies of different sizes and with different product maturity. Doing product right is hard: I felt the pain myself and developed my methods to get to efficient product teams that produce meaningful work.