MUMBAI: Google has appointed a new ringmaster to its artificial intelligence circus. Anuj Gulati, a 12-year veteran of the search giant's marketing ranks, has been tapped as head of global growth marketing for Gemini, the company's conversational AI platform that aims to give ChatGPT a run for its money.
Gulati announced his promotion on LinkedIn with the customary corporate humility: "I'm happy to share that I'm starting a new position as head of global growth marketing, Gemini at Google!" The exclamation mark suggests genuine enthusiasm—a commodity as rare in Silicon Valley these days as profitable startups.
The appointment comes at a crucial moment for Google's AI ambitions. As the chatbot wars heat up faster than a neural processor under load, Gemini represents Google's best hope of maintaining relevance in a world where users might soon bypass traditional search entirely.
Gulati brings a developer-focused pedigree to the role. He previously served as group marketing manager for developer growth and performance, where he led global growth, lifecycle and paid media marketing for Google's developer products across mobile, web and the increasingly crowded AI landscape.
His career trajectory reads like a textbook case of corporate ladder-climbing done right. Prior to his developer marketing stint, Gulati spent nearly six years as senior product marketing manager for developer platforms based in Singapore, where he helped developers in India and southeast Asia "build great products and successful businesses" on Google's ubiquitous platforms.
Before joining the Google mothership, Gulati cut his teeth at The Times of India, where as head of mobile products he claims to have increased mobile traffic sixfold in just 12 months—a performance that likely caught Mountain View's acquisitive eye.
His CV also features a brief philanthropic interlude as head of marketing at Save the Children, sandwiched between stints at The Times of India, where he began his career as a brand manager after a short consultancy role at Tata Technologies.
As Google continues its desperate sprint to catch up with OpenAI's head start, Gulati will need to draw on every marketing trick in his considerable playbook. For while Google may have invented much of the technology underpinning today's AI boom, it finds itself in the unfamiliar position of underdog in the race to commercialise it.
Whether Gulati can help Gemini outshine its competitors remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: in the increasingly cutthroat world of AI, Google is gemini-ly serious about winning.
