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Does Google Have a Claude Code Counterpunch?
Do-everything, ‘super agents’ are dominating the AI story today. Will we see one from Google this week?
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The rise of coding agents has reshaped the AI race. Since late last year, AI products that control your computer and act on your behalf have become the frontier, leaving benchmark-breaking model releases as something of an afterthought. Of the leading players, Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex have become company-defining products. But Google, despite its progress with Gemini, has yet to make similar inroads in the category.
Could that change this week? Tuesday kicks off Google I/O, the company’s annual developer event, and its most crucial moment of the year. A year ago (eons in AI time) Google used the event to emphatically state that it would ride the AI wave, promising to integrate AI into almost everything it made, including by placing AI Mode prominently in Search. Google’s made good on that promise. But now, given the technology’s trajectory, some will wonder if it’s enough.
By all indications, Google is unlikely to make a Claude Code-esque super agent the centerpiece of this week’s news, but there’s an argument to be made that Gemini acting across its products might deliver a similar experience. Coding agents are now capable of combing through your email, calendar, and docs and taking action for you, but Google already has billions of users across Gmail, Google Calendar, Chrome, and Google Drive, so a tighter implementation of the vision could be possible. Instead of taking control of your computer to build a slide deck, as Codex might do, Gemini might natively generate that deck right in Google Slides.
With Gemini’s capabilities powering an impressive surge for Google Cloud (63% revenue growth last quarter), the company is faring very well as AI transforms tech, a place many thought it would never get to given its legacy products. The company’s stock is up 136% over the past year and it’s shot past rivals including Meta and Microsoft who’ve invested vast sums of money in the technology.
Still, as Claude Code-style products reshape software, many will wonder whether Google has a counterpunch ready. The growth of these super agents is simply impossible for any incumbent to ignore, no matter how well the rest of the business is performing.
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