Immersive technology company Infinite Reality, which owns the Drone Racing League, announced a five-year agreement with Google Cloud on Thursday as it looks to provide 3D design and AI-based services to brands across the e-commerce, sports, entertainment and education industries.
Infinite Reality will incorporate Google tools, including its Gemini deep learning models, into IR offerings while also connecting with existing Google Cloud customers.
“They became really excited when we brought them under the hood of what Infinite Reality was building in terms of AI-powered, immersive 3D experiences that allowed their customers to own their data,” Infinite Reality president, global business ventures and partnerships Rachel Jacobson said in an interview. “We really checked a ton of boxes when they looked at what they can bring that’s new, innovative and different to their partners to help them better monetize customers and fans.”
Infinite Reality acquired the Drone Racing League (where Jacobson served as president) in April, one of several recent additions by the company as it built a collection of know-how and connections. The Drone Racing League previously had a multifaceted relationship with Google Cloud, including race sponsorship.
“Our partnership with Google Cloud catapults our product roadmap and provides us with the level of infrastructure support that’s critical for scale,” IR CEO John Acunto said in a statement.
The group plans to continue growing its in-house entertainment brands but is also focused on assisting others. Specifically, IR is pitching brands on the possibility of using AI tools to create virtual worlds, make existing websites and apps more engaging, or use automated chatbots for customer service, sales, and community management roles. The company is also building analytics tools to maximize the impact of those other deployments.
In its battle with other cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, Google is pushing the company’s AI support. It boasts that 60% of generative AI startups are Google Cloud customers. Recent accounting has tabbed Google with roughly 11% of overall cloud computing market share.
Jacobson specifically brought up online commerce platforms as potential clients for IR’s offerings.
“It really runs the gamut, where we can start on home plate with some people and build the whole solution end to end,” she said, “and for other people, it’s literally going into their websites and understanding, Do you want an AI-enabled customer service agent … [to] replicate and scale that No. 1 sales associate?”
Other potential use cases range from creating digital versions of sporting venues and virtual meet-and-greets to interactive job fairs and personalized customer support interfaces.
