Google's Gemini is no longer waiting to be asked. At I/O 2026 today, the company unveiled Gemini Spark, a 24/7 cloud-based AI agent that keeps working after you close your laptop and lock your phone.
It can scan credit card statements for hidden subscriptions, monitor school emails for deadlines, turn meeting notes into polished documents, and draft follow-up emails, all without your device powered on.
Powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash and built on Google's Antigravity agent harness, Spark runs on dedicated Google Cloud virtual machines. CEO Sundar Pichai told reporters ahead of the event: "You don't need to keep your laptop open to make sure it's running." That directly addresses a pain point with rivals like Anthropic's Claude Code, where users sometimes walk around with laptops ajar to keep local agents running.
Spark connects to Gmail, Docs, Slides, and the broader Google Workspace suite out of the box, with MCP integrations for Canva, OpenTable, and Instacart launching today. More than 30 third-party tools are supported via MCP, including Adobe, Asana, Dropbox, Lyft, Uber, and Zillow.
Over the summer, Google plans to let users text and email Spark directly, create custom sub-agents, and give it control over the local browser. A macOS desktop version is also coming.
Josh Woodward, VP of Google Gemini, described the philosophy at a pre-event media briefing: "On the team, we think a lot of it as if you're giving a teenager their first debit card. There are sort of limits and constraints around it." The answer to the obvious safety questions is Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), a framework that caps what Spark can spend, which merchants it can interact with, and what it can purchase. For now. Users must approve all transactions before they go through. The official release includes a frank disclaimer: Spark "may do things like share your info or make purchases without asking." It is designed to request permission for high-stakes actions, but advises users to supervise it.
Trusted testers get access this week. U.S. Google AI Ultra subscribers enter beta next week, with Google cutting the Ultra plan from $250 to $200 a month. A new $100 Ultra tier is also launching to broaden access. The agent shift doesn't stop at Spark. Google also unveiled Gemini Omni, a model that generates cinematic video from text, image, and video prompts with custom AI avatars. A Daily Brief feature pulls from Gmail and Calendar to build a personalized morning digest. The company added AI agents to Google Search and launched Pomelli for brand-building, alongside Wear OS 7.
Last week, developers digging through the Gemini Android beta found "Gemini Spark", previously labeled internally as "Gemini Agent", along with a welcome screen describing the exact use cases Google announced today. Some internal references also called the project "Remy," a 24/7 agent capable of taking actions on behalf of users. Google claims Gemini has reached more than 900 million monthly users across 230 countries and 70 languages, up from 400 million last year.
