Google Search Goes Agentic—and Doesn’t Need You Anymore

AI agents are everywhere. Every briefing I’ve attended for software companies over the past year has involved some mention of agents—using generative AI tools to automate digital tasks. Despite breakout moments at the start of 2026, like the plucky OpenClaw agent that early adopters used to manage their online life, most people are not yet embracing this style of automation day-to-day. That won’t last for long if Google gets its way. At Google I/O, the tech behemoth shared its vision to make its popular search engine a core way to expose billions of existing users to the company’s agentic prowess. “You will be able to create, customize, and manage multiple AI agents for your many tasks, right in Search,” says Liz Reid, who leads Search at Google. She gives the example of setting up an agent to track stock market trends and send you alerts using real-time data—when specific conditions are met. Alongside these agentic additions coming to Search, Google also announced a new underlying model, Gemini 3.5 Flash, as the global default model for AI Mode answers, as well as improvements to the Search box that make it more responsive to user inputs. Always-On Answers One of the key agentic experiences rolling out is a new form of dynamic data gathering through “information agents” that can be more proactive than previous search experiences and automate alerts through your conversational requests. “Ask Google to just keep you updated on anything, and now our agents can do work for you even if you're not using Google,” says Robby Stein, a vice president of product for Search. “So, you could be asleep, and it's still helping you.” This feature will arrive first for subscribers to Google’s AI Pro and Ultra plans this summer. In Google’s example of how these can work, a user asks AI Mode through the Google app to keep them “updated when any of my favorite athletes announce sneaker collabs or signature drops.” Then, AI Mode generates an info agent unique to that user, designed to monitor the request. When a new shoe drops that fits these criteria, like A'ja Wilson’s pink Nikes, the user gets a notification alert with critical context and ways to buy the sneaks. Booking agents are another automation style in Search that Google will be expanding this summer. At previous I/O conferences, Google debuted similar AI features, like the now defunct Duplex, which called companies on your behalf to set up restaurant reservations or salon appointments. Google continues to iterate on that core idea with agents that can search for relevant context about local companies, even calling that barber down the street for a price quote on a beard trim if it doesn’t show up on the website, to help users gather info with less active participation.