Google Built An AI Coworker And Gave It A Confusing Name

Google wants employees to stop writing prompts and start delegating outcomes. At its Gemini at Work event on October 8, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian introduced the Gemini agent, a single assistant that takes a goal, plans the steps and returns finished work inside Gmail, Docs, Slack or Microsoft 365.

The first wave of workplace assistants answered questions, while the Gemini agent is built to complete tasks that can run for hours or days. That shift raises new questions about cost, control, and which product name appears on the invoice.

Inside The Gemini Agent

Let me dissect what the agent does in plain terms. Google describes it as an assistant that onboards itself the way a new hire would, learning an employee’s tools, colleagues and work history before it starts. Employees give it objectives rather than step-by-step instructions. For example, a manager can ask it to set up a meeting with the usual regional event leads next week without naming anyone. The agent works out who those people are from past chat threads, checks their calendars and starts the email thread.

The agent runs in Google’s cloud rather than on the employee’s laptop. That design gives it one memory across phone, desktop and browser, and it lets a long task keep running after the laptop is closed. Google lists four kinds of memory: the task at hand, accumulated knowledge about the business, learned procedures, and a record of past work.

Gemini Agent Vs Microsoft Copilot Autopilot

Microsoft reached the market two weeks earlier. On September 25, it rebuilt Copilot around Autopilot, a long-running agent that gets its own Entra identity, email address and memory inside a customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant. Microsoft governs these agents through Agent 365, its control plane for agent identity, access and cost.