Google funds consultants' AI push

Google Cloud has set aside $750 million to help consulting firms build and sell “agentic” artificial intelligence systems to corporate clients. (bloomberg.com) Google announced the fund on April 22 at Cloud Next in Las Vegas and said it will support development, testing, deployment and training across its partner network. The company said the program is open to global consulting firms, systems integrators, software partners and channel partners in its 120,000-member ecosystem. (cloud.google.com, googlecloudpresscorner.com) Bloomberg reported the early targets include McKinsey, Accenture and Deloitte. Google said DeepMind will give select firms early access to Gemini models, and Google engineers will work with consultants on customer problems before broader releases. (bloomberg.com, googlecloudpresscorner.com) Agentic AI is the industry’s term for software that can carry out multi-step tasks with limited human input, more like a junior operator than a chatbot. Google has spent the past year building the sales plumbing around that idea, including an AI Agent Marketplace it introduced at Cloud Next 2025. (cloud.google.com, cloud.google.com) The new fund pushes that strategy through consultants because large companies often buy technology as part of broader transformation projects, not as stand-alone software. Google said partners already have built more than 1,000 agentic use cases for shared customers, and a Google-backed report last year argued partners are central to turning pilots into production systems. (cloud.google.com, cloud.google.com) Google is also pairing the money with tighter alliances. On the same day, it expanded its Accenture partnership with a Gemini Enterprise Acceleration Program that combines Google models and engineers with Accenture’s industry teams to deploy specialized agents at scale. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) The company is making similar distribution bets beyond traditional consultancies. Google Cloud said on April 22 that Vista Equity Partners’ portfolio companies will get access to Google AI technology and engineering support, extending the same playbook through private-equity-owned software vendors. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) For corporate buyers, the arrangement means more AI projects may arrive bundled with advisory work, integration services and preferred cloud infrastructure. For Google, it means the fight over enterprise AI adoption is moving through the firms that already manage big technology rollouts. (bloomberg.com, cloud.google.com)