In the flurry of AI headlines this year, it would be easy to miss what’s actually happening inside the walls of Google. It’s not just about better chatbots or fancier search results. It’s about something deeper: the rise of agentic workflows that are fundamentally reshaping how work gets done.
Earlier this week, Google’s Q1 2025 earnings revealed some headline-grabbing numbers: 12% revenue growth, 46% surge in net income, and a $90.2 billion quarter overall. But tucked between the financial fireworks were a few sentences from CEO Sundar Pichai that should have every business leader’s full attention.
Over 30% of all code at Google is now written with the help of AI. (source)
More importantly, Pichai pointed to the rollout of agentic workflows: AI systems designed to manage complex, multi-step tasks, not just autocomplete your next sentence. These agentic systems are becoming the nervous system of Google’s operations, from code generation to customer service, finance, cloud management, and beyond. (source)
What Exactly Are Agentic Workflows?
In plain English: instead of a human manually stitching together dozens of actions, agentic AI can now plan, reason, and act semi-autonomously. Think of it as giving your workflows a brain, one that doesn’t need constant hand-holding.
At Google, this means developers aren’t just getting code suggestions, they’re getting full project scaffolds. Finance teams aren’t just running spreadsheets, they’re using agents to prepare earnings call materials. Customer service reps aren’t just fielding tickets, they’re working alongside AI concierges.
The Shift Isn’t Just Technical, It’s Organizational
Pichai emphasized that agentic workflows are embedded “deeply in everything we do,” even outside traditional tech roles. Customer service teams are leading adoption. Finance teams are collaborating with agents. And Gemini, Google’s next-gen AI model family, is powering 15 products used by more than half a billion people.
What’s more, Google is betting big:
- $75 billion in planned AI-related capital expenditures in 2025.
- Full restructuring of teams to prioritize AI-first development, including merging Gemini into DeepMind.
- Layoffs in non-priority areas to refocus on AI growth.
These aren’t experiments. This is organizational muscle memory being rewritten.
Why It Matters for Everyone Else
If you think agentic workflows are a “Google thing” for now, think again. The same playbook is spreading across industries:
- Cloud: Google Cloud’s revenue jumped 28% year-over-year, driven heavily by AI demand.
- Customer Service: AI concierges and automated case handling are becoming standard.
- Software Development: Productivity gains are accelerating as AI increasingly handles the heavy lifting.
The “assistants” of yesterday are becoming “co-workers” today, and “team leads” tomorrow.
Final Thought: Learn to Work With Agents, Not Just Use Them
The companies that win the next decade won’t just bolt AI onto old workflows. They’ll build new workflows around AI’s capabilities.
The question is no longer, “How can I automate a task?”
The real question is, “How can I build a team (of humans and agents) to achieve the outcome?”
And if Google is any indicator, the answer is: faster than you think.
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