Google used its annual developer conference on Tuesday to outline an aggressive new vision for artificial intelligence, unveiling a wave of products and upgrades designed to make Gemini the centre of its ecosystem.
At the company’s I/O 2026 event in California, CEO Sundar Pichai described the company’s next era as “agentic,” as the company shifts towards an AI system capable of completing autonomous tasks.
To Pichai, the agentic era also includes AI agents, which will be integrated into many of the company’s products, including Google Search and Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
"Ten years since we pivoted the company to be AI-first, we still see AI as the most profound way to advance our mission and improve people’s lives at scale," Pichai said during his keynote speech.
The announcements come as Google faces mounting pressure from rivals, including OpenAI, Microsoft and Anthropic, in the rapidly expanding AI market.
