Cloud Next: Develop and Defend AI Agents with Google Cloud
Google Cloud Next 2026 held in Las Vegas was eventful for the supporters of the agentic enterprise with Google Cloud announcing new features to bring it to life.
“When we gathered at Next a year ago, we talked about how generative AI was transforming organisations around the world,” notes Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud in his keynote.
“Today, that future is in-production – the Agentic Enterprise is real – and deployed at a scale the world has never before seen.”
Over the past year, Google Cloud has rapidly scaled its AI infrastructure and services, reflecting rising demand from businesses embracing advanced machine learning tools.
The company’s first-party models currently process more than 16 billion tokens per minute through direct API usage, a sharp increase from 10 billion just one quarter earlier.
This surge highlights the growing reliance on AI-driven applications across industries.
The new announcements unveiled by Google Cloud include Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Gemini Enterprise app, Agentic Data Cloud, Agentic Defense and an Agentic Taskforce.
On the infrastructure side, the company brought out the eighth-generation of Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for accelerated training.
The rise of the 'agentic Gemini era'
Back in last fall, Google introduced the Gemini Enterprise, an end to end system which Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google calls the “the connective tissue between your data, your people and your goals.”
The momentum of adoption was stellar, achieving 40% growth in paid monthly active users in Q1.
“Through this rapid growth, we’ve seen how every employee in every organisation can become a builder,” Pichai notes.
“This is an incredible shift, but it comes with complexity. The conversation has gone from ‘Can we build an agent?’ to ‘How do we manage thousands of them?’”
“That’s why we’re introducing our new Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. It provides the secure, full-stack connective tissue you need to build, scale, govern and optimise your agents with confidence – a mission control for the agentic enterprise.”
Acting as a centralised control system, the platform aims to simplify governance while optimising performance across large-scale deployments.
Agentic cybersecurity takes centre stage
The best way to defend against AI powered offence is with agentic AI optimised for defence.
Enter Google Cloud’s new Threat Hunting agent – specialised for proactively hunting novel attack patterns and adversary behaviours that poke holes in traditional defences.
A new Detection Engineering agent is also available in preview, which is capable of spotting the gaps in security coverage as well as creating new detections for threats.
Another agent that is soon to come is the Third-Party Context agent – which can bring your agents the context they need from third party content.
“Not only can Google action insights from the world’s largest threat observatory and Mandiant frontline experts, but we also bring cutting-edge insights and breakthroughs from Google DeepMind, to help make your platforms more secure,” says Francis deSouza, COO at Google Cloud and President, Security Products.
“Today we are introducing three new agents in Google Security Operations to help you defend at the speed of AI.”
Following Google’s acquisition of Wiz earlier this year, Wiz’s Cloud and AI Security Platform and Google’s Threat Intelligence are combined to deliver agentic defence.
A key highlight is the launch of Wiz’s AI Application Protection Platform, which offers autonomous security from code to cloud to runtime.
It is designed to safeguard multicloud, hybrid and AI systems, addressing vulnerabilities before they escalate into major risks.
Next-generation infrastructure and internal innovation
Google’s eighth-generation TPUs are engineered for both training and inference, delivering substantial improvements in performance and efficiency.
With the ability to scale across thousands of units and handle massive data volumes, they are built to power the next wave of AI applications.
Beyond infrastructure, Google continues to act as its own testing ground for innovation. Internally, AI is already transforming workflows across coding, security and operations.
Sundar Pichai says: “We’ve been using AI to generate code internally at Google for a while. Today, 75% of all new code at Google is now AI-generated and approved by engineers, up from 50% last fall.”
In marketing, AI tools have enabled teams to produce creative assets at scale, reducing turnaround times by 70% and increasing conversion rates.
Together, these developments underscore Google Cloud’s strategy to lead in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, combining cutting-edge technology with real-world application to drive tangible business outcomes.
