Okay, Google was not talking about the traditional view of AI agents at Cloud Next when it introduced Vertex AI Agent Builder. These are generative AI applications that Microsoft calls Copilots, and others (AKA OpenAI) might call assistants or chatbots. A classical definition of AI agents generally suggests some autonomy and “agency” to make decisions when interacting with other variables, such as web services or applications, and not simply extracting information from data sources. Analysis, summarization, and generation don’t fit this classical definition of AI agents. Google is referring to request-response systems that leverage generative AI. Google’s AI Agents are ChatGPT-style solutions grounded in your defined data sources and preferences.
