Google Cloud's Gemini agent (announced 8 Oct 2026 at Gemini at Work 2026): what it is and what it includes

Google Cloud announced the Gemini agent, which it calls a single, universal agent for work. It answers questions, handles knowledge work, creates images and media, and writes and runs code. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, unveiled it in his keynote, published as a Google Cloud blog post. The sources read do not give pricing, a general-availability date or the full tier list.

What Google says it does

The Google blog post says work now starts in the prompt window. Gemini holds an organization's business context and is used from a single prompt box. It plans the work, uses skills and tools, and connects to business systems. It returns finished work inside the documents, inbox and developer environments people already use. It chooses the best model for each job, has built-in cost controls, and has the security, administration and governance enterprises require. Google Cloud's own post describes it as a universal cloud agent running 24/7 that arrives knowing a customer's tools, data and work history.

Where it runs and how it works

Per 2logics' summary of the announcement, it runs in Gmail, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Chat and Calendar. It can also be reached through Microsoft 365, Slack, the command line, the web, and mobile and desktop apps.
botnewsnetwork quotes Kurian: you give it "objectives, not instructions", and work that takes hours or days keeps running after you close your laptop.
The same post quotes Kurian saying the agent can dynamically create a roster of sub-agents.
Cointelegraph reported that these persistent agents get their own email, Calendar and Drive storage.

Models, cost and governance

Google Cloud says Gemini is the agent and the model underneath is a separate choice: Google's own, a third-party model or an open model.
Early summaries say Gemini or Anthropic's Claude can be picked per job, with spend caps. Ivan_Bolsa mentions real-time spending limits.
Google Cloud also says Gemini inherits existing controls over who it is, what it can reach, what it can spend and what it did. Policies are set once and applied everywhere rather than agent by agent.

Secondhand claims

Ivan_Bolsa's post also says specialized versions for banking and legal services are in preview. It says Google reports almost 80% of its Cloud customers use its AI products and about 90% of the Fortune 100 use Gemini Enterprise. It says the TPU 8i gives 80% better performance per dollar than the prior generation. These figures are not in the Google pages I could read.

Google Cloud's Gemini agent (announced 8 Oct 2026 at Gemini at Work 2026): what it is and what it includes