Google adds agents to Search

Google used its I/O conference on May 19 to move AI agents into one of its biggest consumer products: Search. The company said users will be able to create, customize and manage multiple agents inside Search, starting with “Information agents” that monitor the web and deliver updates over time. Google also said it is redesigning the Search box with AI and making Gemini 3.5 Flash the default model in AI Mode globally. The Search update arrived alongside a broader developer push. Google said AI Studio is adding native Android app building, Google Workspace integrations and a mobile app that is open for pre-registration. Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in his I/O keynote that the company is in a phase where people “want to see the value in the products they use every day.” (blog.google) ### What is actually changing inside Search? Google said the biggest visible change is a new AI-driven Search box that expands dynamically as people type and can take text, images, files, video and even open Chrome tabs as inputs. The company said users will also be able to continue conversations from AI Overviews directly into AI Mode on desktop and mobile. (blog.google) Elizabeth Reid, Google’s vice president of Search, said the company is taking “the next step” in combining “the best of a search engine with the best of AI,” according to Google’s I/O Search post. Google said the new intelligent Search box is rolling out starting now in all countries and languages where AI Mode is available. (blog.google) ### What are these Search agents supposed to do? Google said Search is entering what it called the “Search agent” era, in which users can create and manage multiple AI agents for everyday tasks. The first product in that lineup is “Information agents,” which Google described as autonomous agents that run in the background and watch for changes related to a user’s question. (blog.google) Google said those agents can check blogs, news sites, social posts and real-time data across categories such as finance, shopping and sports, then summarize updates and notify users. In Google’s examples, an agent could watch for apartment listings that match a detailed set of preferences or alert a user when a professional athlete releases a sneaker collaboration. (blog.google) ### Who gets the agent features first? Google said Information agents are scheduled to begin rolling out after summer starts to Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers first. The company also said it will expand agentic booking features already available in U.S. Search to more local experiences and services this summer for all U.S. users. (blog.google) Google’s I/O collection page also grouped Search’s Information agents with other consumer agent products, including Gemini Spark and Daily Brief in the Gemini app, under a broader push to “unlock agents and agentic experiences across our products.” ### How does AI Studio fit into the same push? Google said AI Studio is being positioned as a faster path from prompt to app. (blog.google) The company said developers can now build native Android apps in AI Studio, connect directly to Workspace data such as Sheets and Drive, and export projects to Google Antigravity for local development. (blog.google) Ammaar Reshi and Mike Taylor-Cai of Google AI Studio said in a company blog post that the new mobile app will let users iterate on code and preview builds from a phone. Google said the app is available for pre-registration now. ### What does Google say about scale? Sundar Pichai said on May 19 that Google is processing more than 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month across its surfaces, up sevenfold from a year earlier. (blog.google) He also said more than 8.5 million developers are building new apps and experiences with Google’s models each month. Google said Search remains the company’s largest distribution surface for those AI features. (blog.google) In its Search post, the company said AI Mode had reached more than 1 billion monthly active users within a year of launch and that Search query volume had doubled quarter by quarter since launch, according to the version of the post surfaced in Google’s international blog network. (blog.google) ### What happens next? Google said the new AI Search box and Gemini 3.5 Flash default in AI Mode are starting now, while Information agents are set to begin rolling out later this summer to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Google also said broader U.S. Search booking and calling features for services such as home repair, beauty and pet care are due this summer, and the AI Studio mobile app is open for pre-registration now. (blog.google 1) (blog.google 2)