Google Pushes Enterprise Agents

Google is trying to turn enterprise AI into a channel business, with a new agent-building platform and a $750 million partner fund unveiled at Cloud Next on April 22. (cloud.google.com) (bloomberg.com) The fund is aimed at consulting firms, software vendors, and channel partners, and Google said it will pay for agent development, deployment incentives, training, and workshops. Bloomberg reported firms including McKinsey, Accenture, and Deloitte are part of the push, with DeepMind offering some partners early access to Gemini models. (cloud.google.com) (bloomberg.com) The product at the center of that effort is Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, which Google described as an expanded version of Vertex AI for building, scaling, governing, and optimizing agents. Google said the platform adds agent integration, DevOps, orchestration, and security features, while the Gemini Enterprise app adds Agent Designer, an Inbox for agent activity, and support for long-running agents. (cloud.google.com 1) (cloud.google.com 2) In plain terms, Google is packaging the tools to build an agent, the controls to watch it, and a storefront to distribute it. Google said customers will be able to browse third-party tools in Agent Gallery and deploy partner-built agents on its enterprise infrastructure with governance controls built in. (cloud.google.com) (docs.cloud.google.com) That packaging comes as large companies are moving from chatbot pilots to systems that can take actions across software, data, and workflows. Google said nearly 75% of Google Cloud customers now use its artificial intelligence products, 330 customers processed more than 1 trillion tokens in the past 12 months, and direct customer API usage has risen to more than 16 billion tokens per minute from 10 billion last quarter. (blog.google) (cloud.google.com) Google is also tying that agent push to security and governance, two areas that matter when companies let software act on their behalf. At Next, Google said its “Agentic Defense” offering combines Google threat intelligence and security operations with Wiz’s cloud and artificial intelligence security platform, and Gemini Enterprise applies shared rules, observability, and traceability to agents built in the app and on the platform. (cloud.google.com 1) (cloud.google.com 2) The partner strategy is not an add-on to that plan; it is part of the distribution model. Google said the fund will support its 120,000-member partner ecosystem, add Google forward deployed engineers to work with major systems integrators, and deepen integrations with Palantir, Salesforce, SAP, and ServiceNow. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) (cloud.google.com) This is also a continuation of work Google started before this week’s event. In December 2025, Google reworked its Google Cloud Partner Network to reward co-selling, service delivery, and shared innovation, and in April 2025 it launched Agentspace with enterprise search, agent discovery, and no-code design tools that now feed into the broader Gemini Enterprise lineup. (cloud.google.com 1) (cloud.google.com 2) The bet is that enterprise AI will be sold less as a model and more as a managed system: built by integrators, distributed through partners, and constrained by security policy. Google’s April 22 announcements put it in direct competition not just on model performance, but on who controls deployment inside big companies. (cloud.google.com) (cloud.google.com)