At a Google Cloud event on Thursday, the company announced that it is bringing its Gemini AI into the agentic era, with the launch of a unified agent that can not only answer questions, but also get things done on the user’s behalf, all from a single interface.
The move comes as AI tools have evolved from simple conversational experiences to ones that can take ownership of assigned tasks, generate code, schedule meetings, make appointments and travel, and much more. It also follows the rise of consumer-facing agents like Meta’s Muse and messaging-based ones like Instinct and others, as well as the recent debut of ChatGPT’s Dots.
The company still has a good chance of achieving the scale of its agent efforts: as Google CEO Sundar Pichai pointed out at the start of the event, Gemini now has more than 1 billion monthly active users. He also noted that nearly 90% of Fortune 100 companies now use Gemini Enterprise at work.
Given the adoption of Gemini in the enterprise world, Google will initially focus on introducing the agent to businesses before later rolling it out to consumers.
According to Pichai, this will allow the company to address the “harder issues around security, scale and performance” that come with launching powerful agents like these.
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, explained that the new agent can receive “goals, not just instructions.” This means she is able to plan work, use personalized skills and tools, and connect to internal company systems to achieve her goals.
By default, the AI will choose the best model to complete the task, but users can also choose a model, including those from third parties, starting with Anthropic’s Claude models. Google said it will expand the template chooser to include open source and other private templates in the future.
The request may include attachments, such as files, folders, or other projects designed for specific workflows, such as those that combine files and skills. The agent can connect to company data and systems, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Jira, Confluence, Git, BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, Snowflake and others.
It can also connect and operate securely with any Model Context Protocol (MCP) server inside or outside the corporate network.
Users can track what Gemini is doing from a “task inbox” interface, where they can see Gemini’s thought process, delegation of tasks to sub-agents, loading of special skills, code, and progress.
Notably, the AI will have its own Workspace account, as if it were simply another colleague. That means it has its own email address and context, Google said. It knows who in the company is on which team, their time zones, who needs to approve items, what’s on people’s calendars, and much more. Users can call out the agent by tagging them, emailing them, sharing with them, or adding them to a group chat. As it takes action, it writes an audit trail attributed to the agent rather than a person.
The agent will be accessible from iOS and Android mobile devices, Windows and Mac desktops, CLI, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, and Slack.
The agent’s initial testers included sportswear brands On, Shopify and PayPal, and noted that Gemini Enterprise’s clients include large companies like BNP Paribas, Bradesco, Merck, Orange Spain, Santee Cooper, SOMPO, Ulta Beauty and Wesfarmers.
Google said new flexible spending options, including multi-model orchestration, intelligent routing and real-time spending caps, will help businesses better control their enterprise AI costs.
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