This time at I/O, Google appeared to get the upper hand, vibe-wise, with a flurry of new models and features, a vision of a universal AI assistant, and even plans for AI-powered AR glasses. Safe to say, it’s well behind the pack no longer. But Microsoft also unleashed a raft of new AI features and agents as well at Build.

The leaders of OpenAI and Google have been living rent-free in each other’s heads since ChatGPT caught the world by storm. Heading into this week’s I/O, Googlers were on edge about whether Sam Altman would try to upstage their show like last year, when OpenAI held an event the day before to showcase ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode.

Even after an uncommonly eventful week for generative AI-centric device development, we don’t know much about what consumers really want. 2026 may still be more than seven months away, but it’s already shaping up as the year of consumer AI hardware.