For years, tech companies have promised that artificial intelligence would deliver a capable personal assistant for everyone—only to deliver something more akin to a clueless intern. Over the past six months, however, that narrative has begun to shift, largely thanks to the viral open-source AI agent platform OpenClaw. And among the top AI labs now chasing similar success, one company seems particularly well-positioned to make agents succeed at scale: Google.

At its annual I/O developer conference in May 2026, Google announced a sweeping set of new AI agents designed to gather information, plan events, summarize inboxes and calendars, and more. These agents can run continuously in the background, and the company claims they will seamlessly integrate not only with Google's own tools but also with external services. The announcement included expanded developer tools and a revamped Search experience with additional generative AI capabilities. Some features rolled out immediately, while others are slated for the coming months, but the strategic direction is clear: Google is adopting the most successful elements of OpenClaw and amplifying them with its deep knowledge of users' digital lives.

The Rise of OpenClaw and Its Influence

OpenClaw, which gained millions of users since its launch in November 2025, allowed people to chat with their AI agents via everyday apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. As long as a laptop remained open, the agents could operate around the clock. They performed well enough to handle basic tasks reliably, though flaws remained. OpenClaw made all major AI labs take notice. OpenAI acted quickly, acquiring OpenClaw in February 2026 while keeping it open-source, and hiring its creator Peter Steinberger. But Google's existing empire of services gives it a distinct advantage. Where OpenClaw drove adoption by integrating with tools people already used, Google can do the same via its Model Context Protocol (MCP) and build deeper links into its in-house suite of products, including Gmail, Drive, Docs, Photos, and Search. Many observers wonder why it took so long for Google to make such a move.

Gemini Spark: Google's Consumer-Focused Agent

One of Google's biggest bets at I/O 2026 is Gemini Spark, a new AI agent for consumers. Google promises that Gemini Spark can perform tasks across its own services and more than 30 external partners, including Dropbox, Uber, and Spotify. Unlike earlier efforts that required a browser window open at all times, Gemini Spark is cloud-based—it can run 24/7 without keeping a laptop open and sync across the web, Android, and iOS. The agent began rolling out to trusted testers immediately after the announcement, with a beta available to US users the following week on Google's Ultra plan.

Google touts typical uses for Gemini Spark, such as shopping, researching, and coordinating with other people's schedules and plans. But the company also hopes users will find creative applications. Josh Woodward, Google's Gemini app lead, shared that he used Gemini Spark to plan a neighborhood block party, deploying agents to track RSVPs, monitor what attendees are bringing, send reminders, and even coordinate with homeowners' association rules about inflatable decorations. Outside of Spark, Google introduced the Daily Brief, a morning update similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT Pulse.

If Gemini Spark delivers on its promises, it could represent a major step forward for traditional tech companies' AI agents. Google's earliest agentic experiments completed tasks at a snail's pace while hijacking the user's browser. By the time of Gemini 3's release in late 2025, its agents worked well for some jobs—like cleaning out an inbox—but still struggled with others. Now, Google is mirroring key elements of OpenClaw: long-running agents that operate around the clock in the background, giving them more context about their tasks, and allowing users to text and email their agents directly.

Expanding Search and Developer Tools

Starting in summer 2026, Google's AI-powered Search will also incorporate agents. These "information agents" are designed to perform continuous background research—for instance, tracking stock market shifts or monitoring weather patterns to suggest the best day for a picnic. This marks a departure from past Search features that often ate up screen real estate without delivering real value. At the same time, Google announced an expansion to Antigravity, the agentic development platform introduced about six months earlier. A new standalone Antigravity desktop app will serve as a central hub for agent interaction, and the entire system is now positioned as a platform for building and managing autonomous agents. This expansion follows similar moves from OpenAI and Anthropic, which have broadened their successful coding services into more approachable tools for non-programmers.

Underpinning It All: Gemini 3.5

All these new capabilities will be powered by a new model series: Gemini 3.5. The initial entry, Gemini 3.5 Flash, became available in June 2026. According to Google, the model offers significantly better coding capabilities than Gemini 3, which was released to great fanfare in November 2025. The upgrade is clearly intended to leapfrog updates from Anthropic (known for its coding prowess) and OpenAI. Kavukcuoglu told reporters that Gemini 3.5 Flash is especially effective "when deploying multiple agents simultaneously and completing long-running tasks." The model is also four times faster than other frontier models and costs less than half—sometimes a third—of the price. This cost efficiency is critical for 24/7 AI agents, where token expenses can quickly accumulate.

Google's Unique Advantages

In the competitive landscape of AI agents, Google is still playing catch-up with the one-man team behind OpenClaw. However, Google has long been a frontrunner in the broader AI race, and its app has the benefit of scale. As of May 2026, Google's Gemini app serves more than 900 million users per month across more than 230 countries and 70 languages. Compared to dedicated AI companies under increasing financial pressure, Google can at least temporarily subsidize costs to attract and retain users. Moreover, its deep integration with personal data across Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and Search gives it an unparalleled ability to personalize agent behavior. While its agents have not yet weathered widespread real-world use, the direction is promising. If any AI company can make agents truly useful, it is Google. If it cannot, it will have few excuses—and the entire concept of autonomous AI assistants may need a fundamental rethink.

Google's announcements at I/O 2026 signal a pivotal moment. The company is leveraging its vast ecosystem, its scale, and its learnings from OpenClaw to push AI agents from experimental novelty to everyday utility. The success or failure of this endeavor will likely set the tone for the entire industry.

Source: The Verge News