All news articles
Lorikeet News Desk
Jun 23, 2025
TL;DR
Mailchimp's Wade Burrell discusses how Google's existing ecosystem provides an advantage in defining the next AI interaction, with its widespread device and service interdependence.
When Gemini is integrated with your Google Docs, your Sheets, your calendar—that's a massive leg up. It can build an agent that truly understands your day-to-day, and that's an advantage that's hard to replicate.
Wade Burrell
Principal Product Marketing Manager | Mailchimp
*Wade Burrell's opinions expressed in this article are solely his own, and do not represent the views of Mailchimp.
The fight for AI dominance comes down to who knows the user best. While the OpenAI–Jony Ive partnership grabs headlines, Google has the edge that matters: deep, personal insight into billions of lives. Features are now just table stakes. The winners won’t be those who add AI to old tools, but those who build AI-first ecosystems on top of real-world context.
We spoke with Wade Burrell*, Principal Product Marketing Manager at Mailchimp, who contends the industry is focused on the wrong competitor and that Google’s quiet, deeply integrated edge is what truly matters.
Googolflex: "When Gemini is integrated with your Google Docs, your Sheets, your calendar, that's a massive leg up," says Burrell. Google isn’t just building AI tools, it’s weaving them into the fabric of daily life. "It can build an agent that truly understands your day-to-day, and that's an advantage that's hard to replicate."
The Apple of my AI: Burrell sees the OpenAI and Ive partnership as a challenge to Google’s dominance, framed not just as a new device, but as a bid to become "the iOS of AI." "Apple created this closed ecosystem that captured a lot of value, and OpenAI wants to control that entire ecosystem as well," he explains. "The timing, right after Google's keynote, feels like a direct challenge. It’s OpenAI saying, 'You're talking about building AI features, but we're building AI-first experiences.'"
If you have a device in billions of people’s hands and you build an AI service into that existing ecosystem, you’re set up for huge success. It’s no one’s game yet, but Google has a massive head start.
Wade Burrell
Principal Product Marketing Manager | Mailchimp
Evolution, not revolution: But defining that "AI-first experience" inevitably raises the question of the interface itself, and Burrell bets the future will be a gradual evolution, not a radical revolution. He points to the cautionary tale of the Humane AI Pin. "You can't just take away text, put everyone in glasses, and call it a day," he says. "The most successful platforms build on familiar behaviors. The race is about whoever defines how people interact with AI, and Apple defined touch while Google defined search," explains Burrell. "The question is who defines this next interaction."
First out the gate: In that race to define the next interaction, Burrell is firm that Google already has an insurmountable lead. "Success for a new platform is creating device and service interdependence, but that’s where Google is already at," Burrell says. "If you have a device in billions of people’s hands and you build an AI service into that existing ecosystem, you’re set up for huge success. It’s no one’s game yet, but Google has a massive head start."
