With Gemini 3.5 Flash, Google bets its next AI wave on agents, not chatbots

Google unveiled Gemini 3.5 Flash at I/O, pitching it as its strongest model yet for coding and agentic tasks with lower latency and better benchmark performance.

The model is designed for autonomous workflows, and Google is pairing it with the Antigravity development platform, expanded agent features in Search, and the new Gemini Spark consumer agent.

Google said Gemini 3.5 Flash will become the default in Gemini and Search, signaling a bigger shift from chatbots to always-on AI agents.

The company also stressed stronger safety controls as it pushes more capable agents into consumer and enterprise products.