{"id":3141,"date":"2026-04-30T16:23:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2026-04-30T16:23:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:23:39","slug":"google-cloud-next-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3141","title":{"rendered":"Google Cloud Next \u201826 is the end of \u201cAI Hype\u201d: from demos to daily drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

If you\u2019ve followed my recent stories here on techAU, whether it\u2019s the PAX Aus floor highlights<\/a> or late-night Tetris showdowns<\/a>\u2014you know I\u2019m obsessed with the moment a \u201ccool gadget\u201d becomes a \u201cdaily driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

After watching the Google Cloud Next \u201826 keynote<\/a> and in particular the developer session<\/a>, it\u2019s clear we\u2019ve hit that moment with AI. We\u2019re moving past the era of chatbots that just answer questions and entering the era of AI Agents that actually get work done.<\/p>\n

As Google CEO Sundar Pichai put it, the conversation has shifted from \u201cHow do we build an agent?\u201d to \u201cHow do we manage thousands of them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/figure>\n

Meet Your New Digital Teammates<\/h2>\n

The headline act this year was the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. In plain English? It\u2019s an environment where your business data and AI models talk to each other to take action. It also means Google Gemini is now available in Google Workspace, giving you access to AI tools in your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. At work, we\u2019ve already started playing with both Google Workspace with Gemini and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. <\/p>\n

Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform is changing what it means to be a \u201ctechie.\u201d It\u2019s no longer just about writing lines of code; it\u2019s about being a \u201cDirector of AI.\u201d You aren\u2019t just building a tool, you\u2019re managing a team of digital assistants\u2014a planner, an evaluator, and a simulator\u2014all working together.<\/p>\n

\"Gemini
The platform works together, allowing you to build at scale, and maintain compliance. (Screenshot by TechAU).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cVibe\u201d of Modern Tech<\/h2>\n

There was a lot of talk about \u201cVibe Coding\u201d during the developer keynote (a term gaining steam\u2014or maybe not?!\u2014for building apps through conversation rather than manual typing). While the \u201cvibes\u201d are great, the utility is better.<\/p>\n

Google showcased a massive marathon planning simulation to prove a point: you can use this tech for almost anything. Whether you\u2019re organising a world-class sporting event or just trying to automate your company\u2019s invoice system, these agents work within the \u201cguardrails\u201d you set. Guardrails are like safety nets, where you tell your agents how they need to act, what they can do, and what they can\u2019t do. It\u2019s essentially the \u201cAdulting\u201d version of AI. Google introduced things like Agent Identity and Agent Gateway. <\/p>\n

This might sound dry, but it\u2019s huge. It means these AI agents have their own secure IDs and strict rules. It\u2019s the difference between a random bot and a trusted employee. It means your security team won\u2019t have a collective heart attack when you hit \u201cdeploy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Simulation
Simulation in progress, showing how multiple agents can work together. (Screenshot by TechAU).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veo 3.1: Hollywood in your pocket<\/h2>\n

For the creatives and content creators out there, the Veo 3.1 model is the one to watch. We\u2019ve seen AI video before, but this update brings \u201ccinematic consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"New
The new Veo 3.1 Lite model will change the way content is created. (Screenshot by TechAU).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether you\u2019re a marketer needing high-quality social clips or a dev wanting to put slick visuals into an app, Veo 3.1 is designed to be production-ready and\u2014crucially\u2014cost-effective. It\u2019s allowing for the democratisation of high-end video production.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t just throw AI at the wall<\/h2>\n

Despite the excitement, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian hit on a vital point: you can\u2019t just throw technology at a problem and hope it sticks. Just because \u201cAI\u201d is the buzzword of the decade doesn\u2019t mean every business needs to pivot into an \u201cAI Company.\u201d The goal should always be:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Identify the problem.<\/li>\n
  2. Design the experience.<\/li>\n
  3. Decide if AI is actually the best tool for the job.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    AI is non-deterministic (a fancy way of saying it can be unpredictable), so it\u2019s not a magic wand for everything. But for the things it does do well? It\u2019s a game-changer.<\/p>\n

    Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

    The era of the \u201cAutonomous Cloud\u201d isn\u2019t some far-off sci-fi concept; it\u2019s sitting in the tools we use every day. Google even open-sourced the code for their keynote demo<\/a>, so if you\u2019re feeling brave, you can go poke around the repo yourself. The real question is: Are you ready to manage a digital team of agents, or are you sticking to the old-school way of doing things?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you\u2019ve followed my recent stories here on techAU, whether it\u2019s the PAX Aus floor highlights or late-night Tetris showdowns\u2014you know I\u2019m obsessed with the moment a \u201ccool gadget\u201d becomes a \u201cdaily driver.\u201d After watching the Google Cloud Next \u201826 keynote and in particular the developer session, it\u2019s clear we\u2019ve hit that moment with AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45,47,284,41,1655,1654,826,1656,53,1657,1658,427,51,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-ai-coding-assistant","category-ai-regulation","category-artificial-intelligence","category-artificialintellgence","category-developer","category-events","category-gemini","category-google","category-google-cloud-next","category-google-gemini-enterprise","category-openai","category-tech","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}