Google Pushes Deeper Into Autonomous AI Agents After I/O 2026

Google is steadily expanding its AI ecosystem in the weeks following I/O 2026, building on a keynote that signaled a clear shift away from AI as a question and answer tool toward AI as an independent worker. The company says it has moved from systems that simply assist users to agents that can navigate entire workflows on their own.

Central to that shift is Gemini Spark, a persistent AI agent built into the Gemini app that can run continuously on dedicated virtual machines rather than needing a device to stay open. Google says Spark is designed for long running tasks, can integrate with outside tools, and will eventually operate directly inside the Chrome browser. The feature is rolling out first to trusted testers before reaching Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States.

Search is getting a similar treatment. Google introduced information agents that users can set up to monitor specific topics in the background and surface updates or take action automatically, whether that means tracking apartment listings or watching for a sneaker release. Search is also expanding agentic booking, letting people describe specific needs, like a private karaoke room for a certain night and group size, and have the agent pull together pricing, availability, and booking links.

On the development side, Google upgraded Antigravity, its agent first platform, giving developers new ways to orchestrate and build agents using simple markdown based instructions instead of complex orchestration code. The company also introduced Gemini 3.5 Flash, a faster model built specifically for coding and agentic workflows, which Google says now outperforms its previous flagship model on several agentic benchmarks.

Together, the moves point to a broader industry trend where major AI players are racing to build systems that act on a user's behalf rather than simply respond when asked.