Google’s Gemini Agent Takes On Workplace Tasks, Starting With Businesses
Google is bringing Gemini AI into business workflows with a unified agent that can plan and carry out assigned tasks across workplace systems. The company is…
Google is bringing Gemini AI into workplace systems with a new agent that can plan and carry out tasks on a user’s behalf, rather than simply answer questions. The company announced the tool at a Google Cloud event on Thursday and said it will focus on businesses before expanding to consumers.
The shift puts Gemini into a fast-growing category of AI tools designed to take action, such as scheduling meetings, writing code and booking appointments. For companies, that raises a practical question: how to delegate work without losing track of what the AI is doing.
Google says the agent can connect to internal business systems and follow an assigned objective. Workers can inspect its activity in a tasks inbox.
That visibility matters.
Gemini AI gets access to workplace systems
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said the agent can be given “objectives, not just instructions.” It can plan work, use custom skills and tools, and connect to a company’s systems to complete tasks, according to TechCrunch’s report on the announcement.
The agent can work with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, as well as Slack, Jira, Confluence, Git, BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres and Snowflake. Google also said it can connect securely with Model Context Protocol servers inside or outside a company’s network.
Users can attach files, folders or projects to a request. By default, the agent selects a model for the task, while users can choose one themselves, including Anthropic’s Claude models. Google said it plans to add open-source and other private models to the model picker in the future.
The tasks inbox shows the agent’s thinking process, delegation to subagents, loaded skills, code and progress. The system can also use a dedicated Workspace account, with its own email address and context. Google said that context can include team membership, time zones, approval requirements and calendar information.
Business rollout puts oversight in focus
People can involve the agent by tagging it, emailing it, sharing with it or adding it to a group chat. When the agent takes action, it creates an audit trail attributed to the agent rather than to an individual employee.
That design could help businesses see which actions came from automated work, but the source does not describe how companies will configure permissions or review each type of action. Google’s initial focus on business customers reflects the security, scale and performance challenges Sundar Pichai identified at the event, TechCrunch reported.
Pichai said Gemini has over 1 billion monthly active users, and nearly 90% of Fortune 100 businesses now use Gemini Enterprise at work. Google plans to bring the agent to consumers later, after its business rollout.
The agent will be available through iOS and Android devices, Windows and Mac computers, the command line, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, ServiceNow and Slack. Early testers included sportswear brand On, Shopify and PayPal.
Google also said flexible spending options, including multi-model orchestration, smart routing and real-time spend caps, will give businesses more control over enterprise AI costs. The company has not provided a consumer launch date in the reported announcement.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
