Gemini (re)launches Gemini Agent to compete with Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft

October 8, 2026

Bottom line up front:

Google is continuing to try to convince enterprises to let this new unified prompt window be the UI that sits in front of Microsoft 365, Google workspace, ServiceNow, Workday, Jira, and many other tools.
Their pitch is that this is basically a full swap replacement for either Claude Chat/Cowork + Code, ChatGPT Chat/Work + Codex or MS365 Chat/Cowork + Github Copilot.
Their one really unique angle is that they seem to be making the case that users will want to chat, or cowork or code and that it should all be done in one place from one prompt window.
Overall, the UI looks like Claude or Microsoft Cowork or ChatGPT Work.
They demo people working in MS365 files and formats, and the agent using open and standardized file formats, skill files, and MCP connectors.
They are running Anthropic models alongside Google models. (Microsoft shops can already use Microsoft 365 Copilot with multiple model families.)
After testing Gemini Enterprise the last few months and cancelling it, I think this is a step in the right direction but sure feels like too little, too late.
Overall, it's not super clear why a company would use this over any other option they already have.
Release timing was not discussed so it's not clear when companies may be able to even deploy this and their sign-up page requires contacting sales, like it's 2010.
I think most companies can safely ignore this or put it on the "experiment later" list. Maybe the end-game will become more clear as this rolls out.

The detail

Let's take a look at Gemini at Work 2026, hosted today October 8, 2026.

Article content — Credit: Google/Alphabet

The obligatory "we're in the lead" benchmark for Gemini 4 (likely to be superseded by OpenAI or Anthropic in a few days or weeks.) Currently open only to cyber folks though.

They are claiming 1B users on the Gemini App and saying that ~90% of Fortune 100 companies use Gemini Enterprise at work. If I had to guess that means somebody in the F100 signed up for a test account to cross-test it against MS365 Copilot, not that it's "deployed at scale" since they're probably all Microsoft shops with a small footprint of Google workspace but I could be wildly wrong here.

One super agent to do it all

They're claiming heavy enterprises like Goldman Sachs, Newsweek, Intel, Paypal, McDonalds, Walmart, MLB, and Verizon alongside high-scale startups like Canva, Lovable, Every Cure, Recursion, Harvey, and Replit as customers. (I'd love to see the user counts.)
They're announcing the Gemini agent - one agent for chat, tasks, images, media, and coding. [Note that in the last 2 weeks we've seen Anthropic merge "chat and coworking" (while keeping Code separate) and OpenAI has aligned Chat + "Work" and Microsoft's announcements this week also unified Chat and Coworking but again left Code separate. So this seems unique relative to the other players - one place to "do it all".]
Gemini does it all in one window. And it's available everywhere: Slack, MS365, ServiceNow. And it shares memory across all of those surfaces.
It can have any role you want, specialist, team-mate, etc. Assign tasks directly or set up routines.
It can also direct a team of sub-agents (like Cowork/Code, or Work/Codex). It will coordinate them until the work has completed.
It connects to all your tools, skills, and data connectors.
They're really going for a "simple prompt-window front-ending a consistent all-knowing, all-seeing, consistent agent" feel.
It has its own identity, policy, budget and audit trail.
It is NOT TIED to Google only models which is super interesting. (see screenshot below)

"A lot of our customers work in Microsoft". When Gemini Enterprise launched a year ago I tested it and said it was their attempt to head off MS365 Copilot, Anthropic and OpenAI from owning the interface to all of these tools. I still think that's their goal but what Microsoft shop is going to use Gemini Enterprise as the interface to their Microsoft files?
The UI looks like....Claude Cowork.

It has skills and connectors. I think Claude has over 400(?) connectors now. This list seems very light. Would be interested to know if there will be more anytime soon since this is a short list.

It can be used to pull data from Excel and build a Powerpoint. So they're using their UI, and building files in their competitor's office suite with competitors models. It looks a lot like Microsoft Cowork. Bonus points - it used Google Omni to build a product launch video.

This agent has its own email address, workspace, and drive. The demo guy was able to tag the agent, ask it to make a modification and the agent was able to make the edit and comment on its actions. Honestly this is how I'd expect to work with an agent anywhere these days but this was smooth and looks like a great experience.

It integrates with Slack and it's all just a contiguous conversation ("hey gemini, add this <thing> to the other <doc> we worked on earlier from the computer").
He demoed using it to build an HTML dashboard which is again, something anybody can do with Claude Cowork or Code or OpenAI ChatGPT Work or Codex or even Microsoft Cowork by creating and sharing an artifact. Seems like this is playing catch up to the other players.

"You pick the surface and Gemini is always the same". This seems like a pretty direct core positioning difference when compared to the competition that has still left at least a major split between chat/cowork and coding
They've copied the dream mode from Anthropic to form memories from chats.
The goal is for it to learn the user over time and become more effective and personalized as it goes.
All of this is governed, auditable, and cost-tracked (visible in Google Cloud dashboards).

Gemini agent comes with skills (that look like skill markdown files you'd use in any competing product).

it also connects to tools (again, seems like a short authorized list but I guess we'll see?)

they're including core capabilities for things like operational reporting skills (from BigQuery) and machine learning skills
It includes a "knowledge catalog" which sounds a lot like a business glossary and layer of meta data management (where-ever they live.)
They pushed the idea of the "Borderless Lakehouse" which can read AWS S3, Azure Data lake, Salesforce, SAP, Workday and ServiceNow without copying anything.
Industry Verticalization: They're following the herd here for finserv, legal, government, healthcare, and retail including connectors and skills.
They have a free trial. When I tried to start it I got the following:

To set up Gemini Enterprise, you need to contact the sales team. Anthropic moved their ENTERPRISE sales to self-serve and crushed it. Seems odd that they're requiring a human sales contact just to procure this product.