Google to help developers make their own AI agents

GOOGLE PLANS TO help developers build artificially intelligent assistants for a variety of tasks, which could increase dependence on — and revenue for — its cloud services.

- JULIA LOVE, DAVEY ALBA & MATT DAY

At its annual cloud computing conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Google said it would release the Agent Development Kit, a set of open-source tools to make it easier to build AI agents, as well as a menu of ready-to-use agents in its cloud computing platform.

Google envisions its clients using digital agents to respond to customers, write code, create marketing materials and otherwise streamline their operations. If it becomes popular, the boost it generates in cloud revenue could help offset Google's pricier-than-expected push into generative AI.

Investors who were already fretting about AI's steep price tag are growing increasingly alarmed about how tariffs may drive up the costs of tech companies' infrastructure plans.