'The era of the pilot is over, the era of the agent is here': Google Cloud wants you to unlock the power of your data

Always-on agentic AI could unlock all your enterprise data

by · TechRadar

Features By Craig Hale published 29 April 2026

(Image credit: Google Cloud)

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"The era of the pilot is over," Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian declared at the company's annual Next conference earlier this mont, "The era of the agent is here."

With more than 32,000 attendees on the ground and over 260 announcements made, spanning infrastructure, data, security and applications, the event marked one of the company's biggest moments yet.

The message was clear: agentic AI is here, and Google Cloud wants to offer solutions across the whole stack.

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What agentic AI means for Google

Central to this year's Next's narrative was a shift in how Google envisions organizations interacting with AI as they shift from generative to agentic AI.

For the past two years, Google Cloud explained, most of the industry has focused on passive, copilot-style assistants to help employees write, code or analyze faster.

This year, AI is moving beyond assistance to become an active participant in business operations, often totally separated from a human worker. Agents are being positioned as "intellectual peers" – not just tools – capable of reasoning, coordinating and executing tasks.

Speaking in a pre-recorded message at the event, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that around 75% of the company's new code is AI-generated, but we also now know that around 75% of Google Cloud's customers are now using AI in some capacity.

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