Google Cloud launches AI agent platform in Southeast Asia

Google Cloud has introduced a new set of artificial intelligence products and infrastructure for businesses in Southeast Asia, centred on tools to help companies build and manage autonomous AI agents.

The launch includes the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, eighth-generation Tensor Processing Units, new data tools, security products and additions to Google Workspace. Together, these products are designed to connect data, applications, employees and AI agents in a single business system.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google and Alphabet, said customer demand has shifted as companies move from testing AI tools to deploying them more broadly.

"Last fall, we introduced Gemini Enterprise, the end-to-end system for the Agentic Era. In Q1 2026, we saw 40% growth in paid monthly active users quarter-over-quarter. Through this rapid growth, we've seen how every employee in every organization can become a builder. This is an incredible shift, but it comes with complexity. The conversation has gone from 'Can we build an agent?' to 'How do we manage thousands of them?' That's why we're introducing our new Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform-a mission control for the Agentic Enterprise," Pichai said.

Nearly 75% of Google Cloud customers are already using its AI products, according to the company. In Southeast Asia, it cited customers including AEON360, CIMB Niaga, DBS, Emtek Group, FairPrice Group and Minor Hotels. Globally, it pointed to users such as McDonald's, Mars, Merck, NASA and Virgin Voyages.

The company also disclosed the scale of activity on its AI systems. Over the past year, 330 customers each processed more than one trillion tokens, while 35 exceeded 10 trillion tokens. Google Cloud's first-party AI models now process more than 16 billion tokens a minute through direct customer API use, up from 10 billion in the previous quarter.

Platform rollout

The Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform is positioned as a single environment for building, deploying and governing AI agents. It combines model selection, model building and agent creation with tools for integration, orchestration, security and operational management.

The platform gives technical teams access to more than 200 models, including Gemini 3.1 Pro, Gemini 3.1 Flash Image, Lyria 3 and Anthropic models such as Claude Opus, Sonnet and Haiku. Support for Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.7 has also been added.

Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer of Google Cloud, described Gemini Enterprise as the company's core system for broader business deployment.

"Gemini Enterprise is now the end-to-end system for the Agentic Era-the connective tissue between your data, your people, and all of your apps and AI agents that transforms all of your processes into a single, intelligent flow. This isn't about offering individual services that can be cobbled together; we're providing a vertically optimized stack, where everything is co-developed to deliver the scale and efficiency required for this new era of production AI," Kurian said.

Regional examples

In Southeast Asia, CIMB Niaga is using the new platform to develop AI agents for banking services in Indonesia. These agents are intended to help staff provide advice and guidance linked to customers' financial goals and life stages.

FairPrice Group is using the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform in its Store of Tomorrow programme. The retailer has integrated Gemini-based AI agents into Smart Carts for use across in-store and digital shopping channels.

Outside the region, Mars is adopting Gemini Enterprise as its main AI operating system for staff, while Merck is using what Google Cloud described as an "agentic engine" for decision-making across its value chain. NASA is using AI agents in Gemini Enterprise for work related to flight readiness and astronaut safety for Artemis II. Virgin Voyages is using the system to create and manage more than 1,000 specialised AI agents, including more than 50 linked to a 40% reduction in campaign creation times.

Chips and data

Google Cloud also introduced two new TPU architectures, TPU 8t and TPU 8i, for training and inference. Together, the chips offer 80% better performance per dollar than the previous generation, according to the company. One is focused on model training, while the other is designed for low-latency reasoning tasks.

In data, Google Cloud announced what it calls an Agentic Data Cloud. New elements include Cross-Cloud Lakehouse based on Apache Iceberg, a Lightning Engine for Apache Spark, a Data Agent Kit for data science workflows, and a Knowledge Catalog designed to map business context across an organisation.

Security Push

Security was another major part of the launch. Google Cloud said its Triage and Investigation Agent has processed more than 5 million alerts so far, reducing a typical 30-minute manual analysis to 60 seconds.

The company also announced Dark Web Intelligence, Threat Hunting Agent and Detection Engineering Agent, alongside new products under the Wiz brand. Wiz now supports Databricks and agent-building environments including Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Microsoft Azure Copilot Studio and Salesforce Agentforce.

Google Cloud is also rebranding reCAPTCHA as Google Cloud Fraud Defence, now generally available as a platform to assess whether bots, humans and AI agents are legitimate and authorised.

Workplace tools

On productivity software, Google Cloud introduced Google Workspace Intelligence, which it described as a semantic layer across meeting notes, emails, files and other digital workflows. New functions include Google Workspace Agent in Gemini Enterprise, AI Inbox and AI Overviews in Gmail, Ask Gemini in Google Chat and Google Drive Projects.

"Transformation to an Agentic Enterprise is the future of every organization, and Google Cloud uniquely offers a unified system that can take you there. Our AI Hypercomputer provides scalable foundation, our Agentic Data Cloud provides the context, our Agentic Defence provides the protection, our AI agents deliver new levels of engagement and productivity, and our Agent Platform provides the orchestration," Kurian said.