Google unveiled an agentic version of Gemini at its Gemini at Work event Oct. 8, letting the assistant plan and execute tasks for business customers first, the company said.
The agent can use custom skills and tools, connect to internal business systems, and work inside Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slack and Microsoft 365, TechCrunch reported. It automatically picks the best underlying model for a task, including Google's own models or Anthropic's Claude, and lets users override that choice, according to TechCrunch and CBS News.
Each agent gets its own workplace identity, including an email address and an entry in a company directory, so its actions are logged to the agent rather than to the employee who assigned the task, CBS News and TechCrunch reported. Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian said the system can be given "objectives, not just instructions."
Shopify, PayPal and the sportswear brand On tested the agent before launch, TechCrunch reported. It can also spin up temporary subagents for specific jobs and carries memory and skills across tasks, according to CBS News.
For builders already juggling multiple AI assistants inside their stack, an agent with its own auditable identity is Google's pitch for winning enterprise IT departments wary of untraceable bot actions, not just winning a benchmark.