Unified Agent for Businesses
At a Google Cloud event on Thursday, Google unveiled a unified agent built on Gemini that can not only answer questions but also take actions on a user’s behalf from a single interface. The company stated that it will focus the initial rollout on businesses before expanding to consumers.
Capabilities of the Agent
Google described the agent as capable of accepting “objectives, not just instructions,” allowing it to plan work, utilize custom skills and tools, and connect to corporate systems to complete tasks, according to Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. By default, the agent will select the model it determines best for a task; however, users may override that choice and pick other models, including third-party models starting with Anthropic’s Claude models. Google plans to add open source and private models in the future.
Integration with Corporate Systems
Requests can include attachments such as files, folders, or project-specific bundles. The agent can connect to enterprise data and systems including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Jira, Confluence, Git, BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, Snowflake, and others. It can also work securely with any Model Context Protocol (MCP) server inside or outside a company network.
Monitoring and Control
Users will monitor the agent from a “tasks inbox” that displays the agent’s reasoning, task delegation to subagents, loaded skills, code, and progress. Notably, the agent will have its own Workspace account, including an email address and contextual awareness of teams, time zones, approvers, and calendars. Actions taken by the agent will generate an audit trail attributed to the agent rather than an individual employee.
Accessibility and Early Adoption
Google stated that the agent will be accessible from iOS and Android devices, Windows and Mac desktops, the command line, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, and Slack. Early testers included On, Shopify, and PayPal. Google also listed Gemini Enterprise customers such as BNP Paribas, Bradesco, Merck, Orange Spain, Santee Cooper, SOMPO, Ulta Beauty, and Wesfarmers.
Focus on Business Security and Performance
CEO Sundar Pichai noted that Gemini has over 1 billion monthly active users and that nearly 90% of Fortune 100 companies now use Gemini Enterprise. He emphasized that focusing on business customers first will help address the “harder problems around security, scale, and performance.” Google has also introduced new spending controls for enterprises, including multi-model orchestration, smart routing, and real-time spend caps to help manage AI costs.
Original source: TechCrunch AI