Google bets on AI agents

Google used its Cloud Next conference on April 22 to put AI agents at the center of its enterprise sales pitch. (reuters.com) At the Las Vegas event, Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said agents are a linchpin of Google’s plan to make money from artificial intelligence in business software. Reuters reported the company is pushing beyond stand-alone chatbots and into tools that carry out work across corporate systems. (reuters.com) Google also introduced a Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform at Cloud Next ’26 and said it would help companies build, deploy and manage agents for work tasks. Google’s event roundup said the company was mapping a transition to what it called the “agentic enterprise.” (blog.google) In plain terms, an AI agent is software that does a job instead of only answering a prompt: it can look up data, use tools, take actions and hand work to another system. Google’s developer blog said its Agent2Agent protocol is meant to let those agents communicate across different vendors and frameworks. (developers.googleblog.com) That changes the commercial fight. Reuters said Google is betting customers will pay not just for access to large language models, but for agents wired into customer service, finance, security and other workflows inside companies. (reuters.com) Those workflow tools need more than model quality. ZDNET reported Google framed security, controls and operational management as core features of the new platform as companies start running larger numbers of agents inside day-to-day business processes. (zdnet.com) Google paired the product push with money for partners. Google Cloud said on April 22 that it is committing $750 million to help consulting firms, software vendors and channel partners build and deploy agentic artificial intelligence across its 120,000-member partner ecosystem. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) The company is also trying to make its agent tools part of a broader stack. Google’s Cloud Next welcome post tied the agent pitch to Gemini models, custom chips, data platforms, security products and Workspace, which gives Google a way to sell agents alongside existing corporate software. (cloud.google.com) Competitors are chasing the same budget. Bloomberg reported Google presented the new agent tools as part of its effort to compete more directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for enterprise automation. (bloomberg.com) The next test is whether companies move from pilots to routine use. Google’s message in Las Vegas was that the money in artificial intelligence will come from software that can finish work inside the enterprise, not just talk about it. (reuters.com)