According to industry officials on the 23rd, Google used its annual tech conference, Google Cloud Next 2026 in Las Vegas, to declare the start of an “agentic enterprise” era. The company also said it will consolidate its AI products under the name “Gemini Enterprise.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said Gemini Enterprise has evolved into an end-to-end system for the agentic era and “will connect enterprise data and people, all applications and agents.” He added that Google Cloud will provide “an integrated stack” to support large-scale operations and maximize efficiency, and said the company aims to lead the new AI era.
The move is widely seen as a response to OpenAI and Anthropic rapidly expanding their presence in business-to-business markets. Choi Byeong-ho, a research professor at Korea University’s Human-Inspired AI Research Institute, said Anthropic and OpenAI have quickly built monetization models in the enterprise market, pushing the center of AI competition toward B2B. He said Google is now moving beyond foundation-model competition to prove results in the enterprise market.
The enterprise AI market is being reshaped around “agents” that automate work, rather than simple model adoption. A survey by venture capital firm Menlo Ventures found the enterprise AI market surged from $1.7 billion in 2023 to $37 billion, and now accounts for 6% of the global software-as-a-service market.
By market share, Anthropic led with 32%, followed by OpenAI at 25% and Google at 20%, the survey said. With the B2B market still in an early stage, multiple players are competing within narrow margins. Industry officials expect Google’s entry to accelerate a broader platform contest that combines cloud, data and agents, rather than a race focused only on models.
As AI agents increasingly make automated decisions based on corporate data, debate is also expected to grow over security and accountability. Critics warn that if AI linked to internal systems makes errors, responsibility could become unclear.
Choi said AI agents are tightly connected to corporate data, security frameworks and existing systems, ultimately forcing companies to overhaul internal governance and work processes. He added that “consulting-style” business models — going beyond software sales to help solve problems on site — are likely to expand, and said big tech companies including OpenAI and Anthropic are strengthening customized deployments and operational support for major clients.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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