Google unveils an agent-focused platform at Cloud Next

Google used its annual cloud computing conference this year to unveil a new platform focused on AI agents, along with the latest generation of its custom AI chips and tools for deploying intelligent systems in business, deepening the intense competition among technology giants to dominate the enterprise AI market.

The conference, a major event drawing tens of thousands of attendees, showcased Google's strategy for the AI era, centred on helping businesses build and deploy AI agents, software systems capable of carrying out tasks autonomously, as the technology moved from novelty to practical tool.

Among the announcements were an enterprise platform for creating and managing AI agents, a new generation of the company's custom-designed processors built to run AI efficiently, and infrastructure and data tools to support the deployment of intelligent systems at scale.

The focus on agents reflected the broader industry shift toward AI systems that could take actions and complete multi-step tasks, rather than merely generating text, as companies sought to apply the technology to real-world business processes and to capture the productivity gains it promised.

The announcements intensified the rivalry among the largest technology companies, each racing to offer the most capable and attractive AI tools to businesses and to secure a leading position in a market expected to be enormous, as organisations across the economy adopted AI.

The developments at the conference underscored the central role that enterprise AI had come to play in the strategies of the technology giants, and the vast resources being poured into developing chips, platforms and tools for the AI age. As the competition sharpened, businesses stood to benefit from rapidly improving capabilities, even as the broader questions about AI's reliability, impact and governance continued to loom over the fast-moving field.