Training & Certifications

Calling all devs: Build the future of Multimodal AI in the Gemini Live Agent Challenge

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Hey builders! Stop typing, and start interacting! We are moving beyond the text box. The future of AI is all about immersive, real-time experiences. To celebrate multimodal AI, we’re challenging you to build the next generation of agents that can help you see, hear, speak, and create in the Gemini Live Agent Challenge.

Build Multimodal AI agents in the Gemini Live Agent Challenge

Why join?

Hands-on learning with Gemini Live API: This is your shot to build the future of immersive AI agents on Google Cloud. We have everything you need to get started: Quickstarts, tutorials, access to the Agent Development Kit (ADK), and webinars hosted by our experts.
Showcase your skills: You’ll have the opportunity to break out of the traditional "text box" paradigm. Choose from three exciting categories—The Live Agent, The Creative Storyteller, or The UI Navigator—to demonstrate the power of your solution .

Think you have what it takes to win?

Build a solution to showcase your multimodal agent and you could potentially win a share of $80,000 in prizes:

Overall grand prize: A trip to Google Cloud Next ’26 in Las Vegas (includes tickets, a travel stipend, and a chance to present on stage), $25,000 in USD, $3,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account, virtual coffee with a Google Cloud team member, and the potential opportunity to be featured on our social channels.
Category winners: A trip to Google Cloud Next ’26 in Las Vegas (includes tickets), $10,000 in USD, $1,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account, virtual coffee with a Google Cloud team member, and the potential opportunity to be featured on our social channels.
Subcategory winners: $5,000 in USD and $500 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account
Honorable mentions: $2,000 in USD and $500 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account

Dig into Multimodal AI

Your mission is to build and deploy an AI agent on Google Cloud that utilizes multimodal inputs and outputs. We want you to go beyond the traditional text-in/text-out approach.

Whether you are building a real-time translator or a visual web navigator, your agent should interpret the world around it. Here is some inspiration:

The live agent: Build an agent we can talk to naturally that handles interruptions gracefully. Think real-time translators, vision-enabled tutors, and more.
The creative storyteller: Blend text, images, audio, and video into one seamless experience. Imagine building an interactive storybook or a full marketing asset generator in a single workflow.
The UI navigator: Create a helping hand that interprets visual screens. Maybe you want to create a universal web navigator or a visual QA tester that performs actions based on user intent.

Crucial note: Your project must use a Gemini model (like Gemini 3 or Nano Banana) and the Gen AI SDK or Agent Development Kit (ADK). Lastly, you must use at least one Google Cloud service, such as Firestore, CloudSQL, Cloud Run, or Vertex AI.

Ready to start building?

Head over to our hackathon website to register, watch the kickoff video, and review the official rules. Submissions are open until March 16, 2026.

Register for the Gemini Live Agent Challenge

Upskill for the holidays: Check out no-cost AI training now

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0000

It’s the most wonderful time of the year to learn new skills in AI and more. Given the growing skills gap, our research with Ipsos shows that 70% of professionals set a goal to boost their knowledge in AI, machine learning, and generative AI over the next two years. Crucially, 65% prefer learning directly from industry experts to get relevant guidance.

Why not use this holiday season to invest in yourself? Explore no cost courses and hands-on labs from Google Cloud experts, available on Google Skills.

We’ve designed these trainings for everyone. You’ll find hands-on labs for technical practitioners, strategic courses for leaders driving AI adoption, tutorials and primers for non-technical workers and skill badges to showcase the skills you’ve attained.

There’s lots to explore on Google Skills, though knowing how busy everyone is — especially during the holiday season — we wanted to highlight a dozen promising courses and labs below for both technical and general learners.

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For technical learners

Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, these hands-on labs and courses give you the knowledge to apply AI immediately in your projects. You’ll learn practical applications — from fine-tuning models to deploying remote agents — and enjoy the gift of 35 free monthly credits. The best part? Our labs provide a sandbox environment so you can learn Google Cloud skills using the real thing.

1. Kickstarting Application Development with Gemini Code Assist (5 credits): Earn a skill badge in this course, where you’ll learn to use the power of Google’s AI coding assistant and multiple development technologies.

2. Get Started with Vibe Coding and Gemini CLI (3 credits): This lab explores Vibe coding, which uses AI to generate code from natural language to help you speed up your development and focus on the big picture. Keep going to earn the Build a Smart Cloud Application with Vibe Coding and MCP skill badge.

3. Use Model Context Protocol (MCP) Tools with ADK Agents (7 credits): This lab explores the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for integrating external services, data, tools, and applications. You’ll learn to integrate MCP into ADK agents, from the Agent Development Kit, to improve your workflows.

4. Streamline App Development with Gemini Code Assist (no credits required): This course covers the core features of Gemini Code Assist — like intelligent code suggestions and real-time error detection. You’ll boost your productivity and improve code quality, saving time for more enjoyable tasks.

5. Google Cloud AI Infrastructure (no credits required): This learning path offers on-demand courses in AI infrastructure for intermediate to advanced learners. You’ll gain the skills to design and deploy high-performance AI and machine learning solutions using powerful tools like the AI Hypercomputer and Google Kubernetes Engine.

6. Supervised Fine-tuning for Gemini (2 credits): Learn to fine-tune Gemini models for specific tasks to improve the quality and efficiency of model outputs. You’ll get an overview of model tuning, Gemini options, usage, and execution.

7. Connect to Remote Agents with ADK and the Agent2Agent (A2A) SDK (7 credits): Deploy an ADK Agent as an A2A server, and use a JSON Agent Card to describe its capabilities. You’ll also enable another ADK agent as a sub-agent for complex tasks.

For non-technical learners

You don’t need to be a developer to use generative AI to boost your productivity. You’ll see exactly how gen AI is transforming every business role and get the skills you need to succeed — the ultimate holiday treat.

1. Generative AI Leader | Beyond the Chat Bot (no credits required): Start with "Beyond the Chat Bot," covering Google Cloud AI tools like Gemini Advanced and NotebookLM. Then test and validate your gen AI knowledge with the Google Cloud Generative AI Leader certification exam.

2. Introduction to Gemini Enterprise (no credits required): You’ll explore Gemini Enterprise, a powerful platform that uses AI agents, enterprise search, NotebookLM and intelligent data access to solve organizational challenges. You’ll connect its capabilities to business needs, describe its architecture, and explain its data access and privacy handling.

3. Google AI Essentials (no credits required): Enhance your productivity across all roles and industries by gaining essential AI skills. This course teaches you how to use AI to generate ideas and content, assist with research, and speed up daily tasks like drafting email responses. Learn directly from Google AI experts how to use AI responsibly, and earn a certificate upon completion.

4. AI Boost Bites | Amplify Exec Voices with AI (no credits required): Transform your daily work with practical, hands-on lessons from Google AI experts with short, 10-minute lessons. Start with the first lesson to learn how to drive real business results, fast.

5. Future-Proof Your AI Learning Strategy (no credits required): Continuous learning is key, especially in this rapidly evolving age of AI. This course shows you how to use Google Skills to help future-proof your organization. You’ll get ready-made materials, custom experiences, and blended learning strategies for positive returns.

Start your learning journey today with our generative AI content on Google Skills.

New from Mandiant Academy: Protect your perimeter with practical network training

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:00:00 +0000

For too long, network data analysis has felt less like a science and more like deciphering cryptic clues. To help close that gap, we’re introducing a new Mandiant Academy course from Google Cloud, designed to replace frustration with clarity and confidence.

Protecting the Perimeter: Practical Network Enrichment focuses on the key skills necessary to transform network traffic analysis from a daunting task into a powerful, precise security asset.

We’ve designed the course specifically for cybersecurity professionals who need to quickly and effectively enhance network traffic analysis skills. You’ll learn to cut through the noise, identify malicious fingerprints with higher accuracy, and fortify your organization's defenses by integrating critical cyber threat intelligence (CTI).

What you’ll learn

This track includes four courses that provide practical methods to analyze networks and operationalize CTI. Students will explore five proven methodologies to network analysis:

Packet capture (PCAP)
Network flow (netflow)
Protocol analysis
Baseline and behavioral
Historical analysis

Incorporating common tools, we demonstrate how to enrich each methodology adding CTI, and how analytical tradecraft enhances investigations.

The first course, Decoding Network Defense, refreshes foundational CTI principles and the five core network traffic analysis methodologies.

The second course, Analyzing the Digital Battlefield, investigates PCAP, netflow, and protocol before exploring how CTI enriches new evidence.

In the third course, Insights into Adversaries, students learn to translate complex human behaviors into detectable signatures.

The final course, The Defender's Arsenal, introduces essential tools for those on the frontline, protecting their network’s perimeter.

Who should attend this course?

“Protecting the Perimeter” was developed for practitioners whose daily work is to interpret network telemetry from multiple data sources and identify anomalous behavior.This track’s format is designed for professionals who possess enough knowledge and skill to defend networks, but have limited time to continue education and enhance their abilities.

This training track is the second release from Mandiant Academy’s new approach to on-demand training which concentrates complex security concepts into short-form courses.

Sign up today

To learn more about and register for the course, please visit the Mandiant Academy website. You can also access Mandiant Academy's on-demand, instructor-led, and experiential training options. We hope this course proves helpful in your efforts to defend your organization against cyber threats.

Build in-demand network security skills with the new Google Cloud learning path

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Protecting your organization from cyber threats is essential for ensuring smooth operations and meeting compliance requirements. Specialized defense has become more urgent as sensitive data and critical applications have migrated to the cloud. Security is no longer about perimeter firewalls; it’s about securing dynamic cloud networks.

Recognizing the increasing demand for skilled cloud security professionals, Google Cloud is launching a new Network Security Learning Path that culminates in the Designing Network Security in Google Cloud advanced skill badge. This comprehensive program, designed by our experts, equips you with the validated skills needed to protect sensitive data and applications, ensure business continuity, and drive growth.

Earning the Designing Network Security in Google Cloud skill badge can be a powerful catalyst for career advancement. According to an Ipsos study commissioned by Google Cloud, 70% of learners said that cloud learning has contributed to their goal of getting promoted, and 76% said their income has increased since they started using Google Cloud Learning Services.

A complete learning journey

More than just a single course, this new learning path is a complete journey that focuses on solutions based learning for networking, infrastructure or security roles. You learn how to design, build, and manage secure networks to protect your data and applications and validate your proficiency in handling real-world scenarios, such as next-gen firewall policy violations and data exfiltration. Completing the path earns you the Designing Network Security in Google Cloud skill badge.

You’ll learn how to:

Design and implement secure network topologies, from building secure VPC networks to locking down Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) environments.
Master Google Cloud Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) to configure precise firewall rules and networking policies, giving you full control over traffic flow.
Establish secure connectivity across different environments with Cloud VPN and Cloud Interconnect.
Enhance your defenses using Google Cloud Armor for a layered approach to WAF and DDoS protection.
Apply granular identity and access management (IAM) permissions for network resources.
Extend these principles to secure complex hybrid and multicloud architectures.

Empowering you to secure your future

This learning path can be your answer to the persistent cybersecurity skills gap. It can empower you to build the skills needed for the next generation of network security.

To earn the skill badge, at the end of the path you’ll tackle a hands-on, break-fix challenge lab that validates your proficiency in handling real-world scenarios like firewall policy violations and data exfiltration.

Get the skills to confidently protect your organization’s cloud network by enrolling in the Google Cloud Network Security Learning Path today.

Mandiant Academy: Basic Static and Dynamic Analysis course now available

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Understanding malware functionality and analysis processes can be a thorny ball of string. To help IT and information security professionals, corporate investigators, and anyone else get started in pursuing malware analysis as a primary specialty, Mandiant Academy’s new "Basic Static and Dynamic Analysis" course can help enhance your binary triage toolkit.

This course also provides critical core skills for digital forensics, threat research, and threat hunting. It offers practical techniques for static and dynamic analysis of malicious files, requiring minimal prerequisites.

This is a hands-on course that puts participants on the front lines with realistic malware threats and the tools to understand them. Students will use a provided Virtual Machine to analyze and create their own controlled malware detonation environment.

Learn static analysis by exploring the Portable Executable (PE) file format, extracting metadata, and identifying relevant strings. Master dynamic analysis by observing malware in controlled environments, monitoring system events and network traffic, and unpacking/dumping running processes.

Students will gain the ability to triage malicious compiled Windows PE files, improving their understanding of suspicious alerts and files.

After completing this course, participants should be able to:

Explain the basics of malware analysis and Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)
Describe how malware analysis and IOCs fit into the investigative process
Create a safe environment to examine and execute malware samples without risk to systems or networks
Triage malware using hands-on basic static and dynamic analysis techniques

The course consists of the following modules, with labs included throughout the instruction.

Basic Static Analysis - An overview of the techniques, concepts, and tools needed to efficiently analyze malware without execution as well as a thorough introduction to the structure of the PE file format and its most commonly examined artifacts. This module also covers string data types, hashing and hash collisions, data encoding and encryption, and binary packing.
Basic Dynamic Analysis - An overview of the tools and strategies needed to analyze malware in a controlled execution environment, including host activity monitoring and network interception, memory capture, and file and registry change detection.

While programming experience isn't required, some knowledge in this area is beneficial. A strong background in computer science theory isn't necessary, but a basic understanding of binary data and hexadecimal values is recommended, as is expert familiarity with operating system usage fundamentals such as using the command line, understanding executable file types, and basic programming concepts such as functions, variables, source code and compilation.

Sign up today

To learn more about Basic Static and Dynamic Analysis or to attend the course, please visit our website. You can access a wealth of knowledge through Mandiant Academy's on-demand, instructor-led, and experiential training options. We hope this course proves helpful in your efforts to defend your organization against cyber threats.

Google Skills: Your new home for Google AI learning and more

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000

From the classroom to the boardroom, the world of work is shifting at an incredible pace. As advancements in AI and cloud computing gather speed, it's not just about adapting — it's about discovering powerful new ways to thrive, regardless of your role.

To help everyone keep up, we're announcing three major updates to our learning programs, timed with the launch today of Gemini Enterprise.

A new platform, Google Skills, that will bring together nearly 3,000 courses and labs in one place — including content from across Google Cloud, Google DeepMind, Grow with Google and Google for Education.
A new initiative, the Gemini Enterprise Agent Ready (GEAR) program, aims to empower one million developers to start building enterprise-ready AI agents with our new Gemini Enterprise platform.
A partnership with the financial services company Jack Henry to help hire skilled individuals quickly as part of our skills-based hiring initiative.

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With these updates, we’re delivering on our commitment to help everyone access the AI learning they need — including our Google Cloud customers in search of skilled developers.

What’s new for Google Cloud learners, customers and partners on Google Skills?

To support people at all skill levels — from students to developers to executives — we’re introducing Google Skills. This new learning platform is designed to help people develop the skills they need to be successful in today’s job landscape, and to enable businesses to find and develop the talent they need to thrive. In the last year alone, people have completed more than 26 million courses, labs and credentials — and now they’re all in one place.

In addition to content from across Google — like new AI research courses from Google DeepMind — this launch brings with it a host of new content for our Cloud customers to keep them on the cutting edge of AI skill building:

1. Gemini Code Assist: AI-powered learning and new skill badges

Gemini Code Assist will help engineers, developers, data scientists and more jump right into coding with Gemini without leaving the Google Skills platform. It’s been enabled in more than 20 hands-on labs and will be part of all relevant labs going forward. And developers can also prove Gemini Code Assist skills by earning a new skill badge: Kickstarting Application Development with Gemini Code Assist.

We’re also meeting the vibe-coding moment with two new skill badges for app devs: Building a Smart Cloud Application with Vibe Coding & MCP establishes foundational knowledge and practical skills in Model Context Protocol server development and vibe coding on Google Cloud. Deploy an Agent with Agent Development Kit empowers devs to build advanced AI systems where different AI parts work together smoothly, using common methods like the Model Context Protocol, Agent-to-Agent protocol and Agent Development Kit.

2. A better experience for Google Cloud customers and organizations

You asked. We listened. As part of Google Skills, we’ve kept the best of Google Cloud Skills Boost, while adding features you’ve been waiting for on the all-new Google Skills platform. For example, Cloud customers will continue to have access to the entire Google Cloud content library for free, now including new content from Google DeepMind.

We’ve also added a new feature that lets you assign the most relevant courses and hands-on labs to your teams. This personalization benefits your business and accelerates your team’s ability to innovate.

Plus, you can now use company leaderboards — customized for your organization — that spark friendly competition and add a dose of fun. And finally, for Google Skills admins, we’ll be adding features to make reporting more advanced. That means more data, more flexibility and more insights that let you keep track of your team’s progress in real time.

3. Cloud learning has never been more fun: new gamified features

For organizations, Google Skills makes it easier to keep your teams engaged and up to date. This is key: 74% of decision makers agree that technical learning resources improve employee productivity, and 71% of organizations realize revenue gains after engaging with these resources.¹ In other words, more learning is a universal boon to business.

But learning alone isn’t enough. It needs to be fun, engaging and easy to fit into your schedule. That’s why we’re bringing new AI-powered and gamification features to Google Skills to make learning more effective.

Gamified features:

Leagues: Encourage friendly competition based on earned points with this dashboard widget.
Achievements: Celebrate your learning milestones with new visuals and easy options for social sharing.
Learning streaks: Promote consistent learning habits through bonus points and "streak freezes."

GEAR: A new sprint to empower one million developers

Today, we’re also announcing the Gemini Enterprise Agent Ready (GEAR) program, a new educational sprint designed to empower one million developers on our new agentic platform, Gemini Enterprise. Through a cohort-based approach, we will help them build, deploy and manage agents, and as part of GEAR, developers can earn skill badges through Google Skills.

A direct path to employment; a faster way to hire

Building skills isn’t just good for individual careers — it’s also good for business. That’s why with Google Skills, we're making it easier for people to get the skills employers are looking for, and for companies to find the talent they need to succeed.

Today, we’re announcing that for those who complete a Google Cloud Certificate in cybersecurity or data analytics in the U.S., there's now a direct pathway to an interview with leading financial services firm Jack Henry. You'll get to complete custom, hands-on labs that simulate the company’s real-world scenarios. These labs act as the first stage of the company's hiring process, giving you a tangible way to showcase your skills and land a new job. We're excited to expand the model to more Google Cloud customers in the future.

“We are excited for our collaboration with Google Cloud to reimagine talent acquisition. By leveraging Google Cloud Certificates, we have been able to more effectively identify and recruit top talent, helping to fuel our growth to fill critical skill gaps.” - Holly Novak, Chief People Officer, Jack Henry

This initiative is especially important because businesses are actively looking for talent. A recent study found that 82% prefer to recruit and hire professionals who hold these credentials.²

For Google Cloud customers interested in bringing on skilled individuals to your company, learn more about the program here.

We’re just getting started. Whether you’re an individual looking to get hired or a business leader aiming to upskill your teams, there’s something for everyone to thrive in this new world of AI.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

¹ Google/Ipsos, Cloud Learning Services Market Pulse, Quantitative Portion Fielded Sept-Oct 2024, Qualitative Portion Fielded Oct-Nov 2024, (U.S., U.K., FR, DE, IN, BR, MX, JP, AU/N.Z.)

² Google/Ipsos, Cloud Learning Services Market Pulse, Quantitative Portion Fielded Sept-Oct 2024, Qualitative Portion Fielded Oct-Nov 2024, (U.S., U.K., FR, DE, IN, BR, MX, JP, AU/N.Z.)

Want to get building production-ready AI agents? Here’s where startups should start.

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 21:00:00 +0000

Startups are using agentic AI to automate complex workflows, create novel user experiences, and solve business problems that were once considered technically impossible. Still, charting the optimal path forward — especially with the integration of AI agents — often presents significant technical complexity

To help startups navigate this new landscape, we’re launching our Startup technical guide: AI agents. It provides a systematic, operations-driven roadmap for embracing the potential of agentic systems.

What does this potential look like? AI agents combine the intelligence of advanced AI models with access to tools so they can take actions on your behalf, under your control. Unlike traditional AI, agentic AI can break down intricate tasks, refine plans, and dynamically utilize external resources and tools. The key takeaway is that AI agents can tackle complex, multi-step problems, ultimately transforming from a passive tool into a proactive problem-solver.

If your startup is looking to get in on the agentic AI action, here are some initial steps to consider. And when you’re ready to get building, you can get more details in our guide or even reach out to one of our AI experts at Google Cloud.

Choose your path: Build, use, or integrate

Every startup’s journey is unique, which is why Google Cloud offers a flexible agent ecosystem that supports the comprehensive development of agentic systems. You can:

Build your own agents: For teams that require a high degree of control over agent behavior, the open-source Agent Development Kit (ADK) is your go-to development framework. ADK is built for a custom, code-first approach, empowering developers to build, manage, evaluate, and deploy AI-powered agents. For an application-first approach, Gemini Enterprise orchestrates your entire AI workforce and empowers non-technical team members to build custom agents using a no-code designer.
Use Google Cloud agents: With rapid prototyping and easy ways to integrate AI into your existing apps, managed agents let you focus on core business logic rather than managing infrastructure. Gemini Code Assist is an AI-powered assistant for developers, while Gemini Cloud Assist is an AI expert for your Google Cloud environment.
Bring in partner agents: For more specialized use cases, you can easily integrate third-party or open-source agents into your stack via the Google Cloud Marketplace. You can also explore the Agent Garden to deploy prebuilt ADK agents that already support data reasoning and inter-agent collaboration.

No matter which path you choose, our ecosystem is designed for interoperability, built on open standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol.

4 steps for building your first agent

The Startups technical guide: AI agents provides a complete roadmap for building production-ready AI agents. Here’s four core steps we’ve identified that can help define your first agent, using Agent Development Kit (ADK).

Step 1: Give your agent an identity

First, define your agent's core identity. You’ll want to give it a unique name for logging and delegation, a clear description of its capabilities so other agents can route tasks to it, and identify the right AI foundation model (like Gemini 2.5 Pro or Gemma) to power its reasoning. Precision here is critical. The model you’re using treats every part of this definition as a prompt, and vague descriptions can lead to "context poisoning," causing the agent to pursue incorrect goals.

Step 2: Write the “prime directive" with instructions

Next, give your agent its "prime directive" using the instruction parameter. This is where you define its persona, core objectives, and do's and don'ts. Effective instructions clearly specify the desired outcomes for your agent, provide examples for complex tasks (e.g. few-shot prompting), and guide the agent on how to use its tools.

Step 3: Grant superpowers with tools

Transform your agent from a pure conversationalist into a system that can take action by equipping it with functions to call external APIs, search databases, or interact with other systems. In doing so, you grant it broader capabilities. For example, a bug assistant agent uses tools to fetch user details from a CRM or create a ticket in a project management system. Since the agent chooses which tool to use based on its name and description, making them clear and unique is crucial to avoid looping behaviors or incorrect actions.

Step 4: Master the lifecycle: test, deploy, operate

Building an agent is a continuous cycle, not a one-off task. Because agentic systems are non-deterministic, standard unit tests are insufficient. Our guide shows you how to evaluate an agent’s "trajectory" — its step-by-step reasoning — to ensure quality and reliability. This operational rigor, which we call AgentOps, is key to confidently deploying your agent on platforms like Vertex AI Agent Engine or Cloud Run and operating it safely in production.

Agents already in action

Startups are constantly innovating their agentic journeys , here’s a look at two startups that use Google Cloud's models and architecture to run their agentic systems:

Actionable insights for better employee engagement

Wotter, a provider of next-generation Employee Engagement solutions, seeks to better understand what employees want and empower organizations with the insights they need to get the best out of their people by asking the right question to the right person at the right time.

Gemini 2.5 Flash was the right foundation model for Wotter’s smart assistant, blending speed with long-context reasoning. Wotter’s Flash models use agentic methods to manage extensive and ongoing sources of data, such as employee interactions and feedback, while still responding to queries on this data in seconds - and at a lower cost per query.

Eliminate a long-standing legal industry pain point

As people in the legal industry know too well, complex document reviews can ruin nights and weekends while turning focus away from strategic work. Enter Harvey, which is equipping legal professionals with domain-specific AI to maximize efficiency and keep legal professionals’ attention on activities that move the needle for their firms and clients.

Harvey evaluated several foundation models and ultimately found that Gemini 2.5 Pro achieved the leading score of 85.02% on its BigLaw Bench benchmark, the first of its kind to represent complex legal tasks. Gemini 2.5 Pro showcased strong reasoning across inputs consisting of hundreds of pages of materials—a common scenario in legal work. The model then used these materials to generate longer-form and comprehensive outputs, enabling deeper insights and analyses.

These core capabilities proved Gemini 2.5 Pro’s potential across complex legal work that requires reasoning over large sets of documents to support diligence, review, and use case drafting. Further, Vertex AI provides the stringent security and privacy guarantees that build trust in the Harvey platform among clientele. Gemini and Vertex AI are now an important part of Harvey’s vision for future product development.

Build what's next, faster

The Startup technical guide: AI agents provides the blueprint your team needs to turn your vision into a production-ready reality. By using a code-first framework like ADK and the operational principles in this guide, you can move beyond informal “vibe-testing” to a rigorous, reliable process for building and managing your agent’s entire lifecycle. For your startup, this disciplined approach becomes a powerful competitive advantage.

No matter where you are with AI adoption, we are here to help. Contact our Startup team today and you could get up to $350,000 USD in cloud credits with the Google for Startups Cloud Program,

Back to AI school: New Google Cloud training to future-proof your AI skills

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Getting ahead — and staying ahead — of the demand for AI skills isn’t just key for those looking for a new role. Research shows proving your skills through credentials drives promotion, salary increase, leadership opportunities and more. And 8 in 10 Google Cloud learners feel our training helps them stay ahead in the age of AI.¹ This is why we are so focused on providing new AI training content ensuring you have the tools to keep up in this ever-evolving space.

That’s why I’m thrilled to announce a new suite of Google Cloud AI training courses. These courses are designed with intermediate and advanced technical learners in mind for roles such as Cloud Infrastructure Engineers, Cloud Architects, AI Engineers and MLOps Engineers, AI Developers and Data Scientists. Whether you're looking to build and manage powerful AI infrastructure, master the art of fine-tuning generative AI models, leverage serverless AI inference, or secure your AI deployments, we've got you covered.

For cloud infrastructure engineers, cloud architects, AI engineers and MLOps engineers:

AI infrastructure mini courses are your guide to designing, deploying and managing the high-performance infrastructure that powers modern AI. You’ll gain a deep understanding of Google’s TPU and GPU platforms, and learn to use Google Compute Engine (GCE) and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) as a robust foundation for any AI workload you can imagine.

For machine learning engineers, data scientists and AI developers:

Build AI Agents with Databases on Google Cloud teaches you how to securely connect AI agents to your existing enterprise databases. You'll learn to craft agents that perform intelligent querying and semantic search, design and implement advanced multi-step workflows, and deploy and operationalize these powerful AI applications. This course is essential for building robust and reliable AI agents that can leverage your most critical data.
Supervised fine-tuning for Gemini educates you on how to take Google’s powerful models and make them your own by customizing them for your specific tasks, enhancing their quality and efficiency so they deliver precisely what you and your users need.
Cloud Run for AI Inference teaches you how to deploy those innovations with incredible speed and scale of serverless AI workloads. You'll learn how to handle demanding AI workloads, including lightweight LLMs, and leverage GPU acceleration, ensuring your creations reach your audience efficiently and reliably.

Security engineers, security analysts:

Model Armor: Securing AI Deployments equips you with the knowledge to protect your generative AI applications from critical risks like data leakage and prompt injection. It’s the essential step to ensuring your innovations can be leveraged with confidence.

For individual developers, business analysts, and other non-technical users:

Develop AI-Powered Prototypes in Google AI Studio shows you how to use Google AI Studio, our developer playground for the Gemini API, to quickly sketch and test your ideas. Through hands-on labs and tutorials, you’ll learn how to prototype apps with little upfront setup and create custom models without needing extensive coding expertise. It’s the perfect way to turn a concept into a working model, ensuring your final structure is built on a tested and innovative design.

Start learning

Building a career in AI is about creating a future where you feel empowered and prepared, no matter how the landscape changes. We believe these courses provide the tools and the confidence to do just that.

Explore our new AI courses on Google Cloud Skills Boost today, and start building for your future.

^{1. Google/Ipsos, Cloud Learning Services Market Pulse, Fielded Sept 17th - October 23rd 2024 (US, UK, FR, DE, IN, BR, MX, JP, AU/NZ)}

Prove your expertise with our Professional Security Operations Engineer certification

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Security leaders are clear about their priorities: After AI, cloud security is the top training topic for decision-makers. As threats against cloud workloads become more sophisticated, organizations are looking for highly-skilled professionals to help defend against these attacks.

To help organizations meet their need for experts who can manage a modern security team’s advanced tools, Google Cloud’s new Professional Security Operations Engineer (PSOE) certification can help train specialists to detect and respond to new and emerging threats.

Unlock your potential as a security operations expert

Earning a Google Cloud certification can be a powerful catalyst for career advancement. Eight in 10 learners report that having a Google Cloud certification contributes to faster career advancement, and 85% say that cloud certifications equip them with the skills to fill in-demand roles, according to an Ipsos study published in 2025 and commissioned by Google Cloud.

Foresite, a leading Google Cloud managed security service provider (MSSP), said that the certification has been instrumental in helping them provide security excellence to their clients.

“As a leader at Foresite, our commitment is to deliver unparalleled security outcomes for our clients using the power of Google Cloud. The Google Cloud Professional Security Operations Engineer (PSOE) certification is fundamental to that mission. For us, it's the definitive validation that our engineers have mastered the advanced Google Security Operations platform we use to protect our clients' businesses. Having a team of PSOE-certified experts provides our clients with direct assurance of our capabilities and expertise. It solidifies our credibility as a premier Google Cloud MSSP and gives us a decisive edge in the market. Ultimately, it’s a benchmark of the excellence we deliver daily,” said Brad Thomas, director, Security Engineering.

The PSOE certification can help validate practical skills needed to protect a company's data and infrastructure in real-world scenarios, a key ingredient for professional success. It also can help security operations engineers demonstrate their ability to directly address evolving and daily challenges.

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Gain a decisive edge with certified security talent

For organizations, including MSSPs and other Google Cloud partners, this certification is a powerful way to help ensure that your security professionals are qualified to effectively implement, respond to, and remediate security events using Google Cloud’s suite of solutions.

Hiring managers are increasingly looking for a specific skill set. The Ipsos study also found that eight in 10 leaders prefer to recruit and hire professionals who hold cloud certifications, seeing them as a strong indicator of expertise.

“We are excited about Google’s new Professional Security Operations Engineer certification, which will help Accenture demonstrate our leading expertise in security engineering and operations to clients. This validation is important because it gives our clients confidence in knowing Accenture has certified professionals with structured training as they choose the best service partner for their security transformations. For our teams, this new certification offers a clear path for professional development and career advancement. Google’s Professional Security Operations Engineer certification will enable Accenture to support clients better as they successfully adopt and get the most out of the Google Security Operations and Security Command Center platforms,” said Rex Thexton, chief technology officer, Accenture Cybersecurity.

Demonstrate comprehensive expertise across Google Cloud Security tools

A Google Cloud-certified PSOE can effectively use Google Cloud security solutions to detect, monitor, investigate, and respond to security threats across an enterprise environment. This role encompasses identity, workloads, services, infrastructure, and more.

Plus, PSOEs can perform critical tasks such as writing detection rules, remediating misconfigurations, investigating threats, and developing orchestration workflows. The PSOE certification validates the candidate’s abilities with Google Cloud security tools and services, including:

Google Security Operations
Google Threat Intelligence
Security Command Center

Specifically, the exam assesses ability across six key domains:

Platform operations (~14%): Enhancing detection and response with the right telemetry sources and tools, and configuring access authorization.
Data management (~14%): Ingesting logs for security tooling and identifying a baseline of user, asset, and entity context.
Threat hunting (~19%): Performing threat hunting across environments and using threat intelligence for threat hunting.
Detection engineering (~22%): Developing and implementing mechanisms to detect risks and identify threats, and using threat intelligence for detection.
Incident response (~21%): Containing and investigating security incidents; building, implementing, and using response playbooks; and implementing the case management lifecycle.
Observability (~10%): Building and maintaining dashboards and reports to provide insights, and configuring health monitoring and alerting.

While there are no formal prerequisites to take the exam, we recommend that candidates have:

At least three years of security industry experience.
At least one year of hands-on experience using Google Cloud security tooling.

The certification is relevant for experienced professionals, including those in advanced career stages and roles, such as security architects.

Your path to security operations starts here

To prepare for the exam, Google Cloud offers resources that include online training and hands-on labs. The official Professional Security Operations Engineer Exam Guide provides a complete list of topics covered, helping candidates align their skills with the exam content. Candidates can also start preparing through the recommended learning path.

You can learn more and register for the Professional Security Operations Engineer certification today.

Introducing the Agentic SOC Workshops for security professionals

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0000

The security operations centers of the future will use agentic AI to enable intelligent automation of routine tasks, augment human decision-making, and streamline workflows. At Google Cloud, we want to help prepare today’s security professionals to get the most out of tomorrow’s AI agents.

As we build our agentic vision, we’re also excited to invite you to the first Agentic SOC Workshop: Practical AI for Today's Security Teams. This complimentary, half-day event series is designed for security practitioners looking to level up their AI skills and move beyond the marketing to unlock AI's true potential. Ultimately, we believe that agentic AI will empower security professionals to focus more on complex investigations and strategic initiatives, and drive better security outcomes and operational efficiency.

Our vision is a future where every customer has a virtual security assistant --- trained by the world's leading security experts --- that anticipates threats and recommends the best path to deliver on security goals. We are building the next class of security experts empowered by AI, and these workshops are your opportunity to become one of them.

How the Agentic SOC Workshop can boost your security skills

The Agentic SOC Workshop combines foundational security capabilities with AI to help security professionals develop the necessary skills for successful AI use. Attendees will:

Explore the agentic SOC future: Learn about Google Cloud's vision for the future of security operations, where agent AI systems automate complex workflows and empower analysts to focus on high-impact tasks.

Learn by doing: Dive into a practical, real-world AI workshop tailored for security practitioners. Learn how to use Google Cloud's AI and threat intelligence to automate repetitive tasks, reduce alert fatigue, and improve your security skills.

Participate in a dynamic Capture the Flag challenge: Put your new skills to the test in an interactive game where you use the power of AI to solve challenges and race to the finish line.

Meet and network with peers: Gain valuable insights from industry peers and hear from other customers on their journey to modernize security operations. Connect with peers, partners, and Google experts during networking breaks concluding with a happy hour.

Discover practical uses for AI: Learn how to use Gemini in Google Security Operations to respond to threats faster and more effectively.

Get inspired by current customers: Discover how customers and partners are using Google Cloud Security to streamline workflows and amplify capabilities in the face of evolving threats.

Prepare for Agentic SOC with Partners: Identify ways to assess, migrate, and implement Google Security Operations with our MSSP Partner ecosystem, and prepare your organization for the agentic SOC.

Join us in a city near you

These free, half-day workshops are specifically designed for security professionals, including security architects, SOC managers, analysts, and security engineers, as well as security IT decision-makers including CISOs and VPs of security.

We’ll be holding Agentic SOC Workshops starting in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Sept. 17, and Chicago on Friday, Sept. 19. Workshops will continue in October in New York City; Toronto; Auckland, New Zealand; and in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney, Australia.

More cities will host Agentic SOC Workshops soon. To register for a workshop near you, please check out our registration page.

Registration now open: Our no-cost, generative AI training and certification program for veterans

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Growing up in a Navy family instilled a strong sense of purpose in me. My father’s remarkable 42 years of naval service not only shaped my values, but inspired me to join the Navy myself. Today, as the leader of Google Public Sector, I'm honored to continue that tradition of service in support of our federal government.

Over the past year, Google Public Sector has made significant strides in delivering AI and secure cloud infrastructure to government agencies. We introduced a Google Workspace discount through GSA’s OneGov Strategy in April, and just last month expanded that partnership with the introduction of a “Gemini for Government” offering to provide a comprehensive set of AI tools to federal agencies at less than $.50 per government agency for a year. In addition, Google Public Sector secured a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense's (DoD) Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) to accelerate the adoption of AI and cloud capabilities. These are just a few examples of Google’s commitment to the federal workforce.

In addition to these efforts, my role at Google Public Sector affords me the opportunity to work closely with a community I know well: our nation's veterans. I've seen firsthand the immense value and leadership skills veterans bring to the table, yet the transition to civilian life can be difficult, with veterans facing challenges ranging from underemployment to difficulties securing meaningful work.

At Google Public Sector, we’ve long been committed to changing this narrative by empowering the veteran community with the skills and resources needed for successful career transitions.

Sign up today for Google Launchpad for Veterans

I’m excited to share that registration is officially open for the next cohort of Google Launchpad for Veterans. Introduced in 2024, this three-week, no-cost, virtual training program provides veterans with the foundational skills necessary to jump start rewarding careers with generative AI. The program is open to US and Canada military veterans and service members.

Last year, we trained over 4,000 veterans to help them transition into high-paying tech roles. This next cohort of learners will gain in-demand skills that enable them to thrive in both functional and technical positions, along with the knowledge to help drive digital transformation through AI within their organization.

Become a leader in AI digital transformation with this virtual, no-cost program

The Gen AI Leader training, which does not require previous technical experience, kicks off with a two-day virtual event on November 13th and 14th. You’ll enjoy interactive training sessions and a panel discussion with veterans from Google and learn:

Foundational generative AI knowledge: Grasp the core concepts of generative AI, including Large Language Models (LLMs), machine learning paradigms, and various data types.
AI ecosystem navigation: Learn to navigate the broader AI landscape, encompassing infrastructure, models, platforms, agents, and applications.
Practical business applications: Explore real-world uses of generative AI within business, with a focus on powerful Google Cloud tools like Gemini and NotebookLM.
Strategic perspective: Understand how generative AI agents can drive organizational transformation.

After completing the program, you’ll receive a complimentary voucher to take the Gen AI Leader exam. Attendees are encouraged to take the exam between November 21st and December 19th, 2025. After successful completion, you’ll receive Google’s industry-recognized Gen AI Leader certification, a valuable credential to help you advance your career.

If you’d like additional practice before taking the exam, we're offering optional exam preparation sessions on November 17th, and 21st. As a bonus, the first 500 individuals to pass the exam will receive a voucher for their very own pair of Google socks!

Register today and get ready to translate your military experience to a powerful career where you can apply the latest in AI, security, and cloud technologies to public sector missions.

Learn more about Google Public Sector

To learn more about Google Public Sector partners, peers, and partners are building the future, join us for our Public Sector Summit, held in Washington, DC on October 29th. You can explore more content at publicsector.google.

Calling all devs: Join the GKE Turns 10 Hackathon and build with agentic AI

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0000

For ten years, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) has been at the forefront of innovation, powering everything from microservices to cloud-native AI and edge computing. To honor this special birthday, we’re challenging you to catapult your microservices into the future with cutting-edge agentic AI. Are you ready to celebrate?

Why join?

Hands-on learning with GKE: This is your shot to build the next evolution of applications by integrating agentic AI capabilities on GKE. We have everything you need to get started: our microservice applications, example agents on GitHub, documentation, quickstarts, tutorials, and a webinar hosted by our experts.
Showcase your skills: You’ll have the opportunity to elevate a sample microservices application into a unique use case. Feel free to get creative with non-traditional use cases and utilize Agent Development Kit (ADK), Model Context Protocol (MCP), and the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol for extra powerful functionality!

Think you have what it takes to win? Build an app to showcase your agents and you could potentially win:

Overall grand prize: $15,000 in USD, $3,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account, A chance to win maximum of two (2) KubeCon North America conference passes in Atlanta, Georgia (November 10-13, 2025), a 1 year, no-cost Google Developer Program Premium subscription, guest interview on the Kubernetes Podcast, video feature with the GKE team, virtual coffee with a Google team member, and social promo
Regional winners: $8,000 in USD, $1,000 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account, video feature with the GKE team on a Google Cloud social media channel, virtual coffee with a Google team member, and social promo
Honorable mentions: $1000 in USD and $500 in Google Cloud Credits for use with a Cloud Billing Account

Unleash the power of agentic AI on GKE

GKE is built on open-source Kubernetes, but is also tightly integrated with the Google Cloud ecosystem. This makes it easy to get started with a simple application, while having the control you need for more complex application orchestration and management.

When you join the GKE Turns 10 Hackathon, your mission is to take pre-existing microservice applications (either Bank of Anthos or Online Boutique) and then integrate cutting-edge agentic AI capabilities. The goal is not to modify the core application code directly, but instead build new components that interact with its established APIs! Here is some inspiration:

Optimize important processes: Add a sophisticated AI chatbot to the Online Boutique that can query inventory, provide personalized product recommendations, or even check a user’s financial balance via an integrated Bank of Anthos API.
Streamline maintenance and mitigation: Develop an agent that intelligently monitors microservice performance on GKE, suggests troubleshooting steps, and even automates remediation.

Crucial note: Your project must be built using GKE and Google AI models such as Gemini, focusing on how the agents interact with your chosen microservice application. As long as GKE is the foundation, feel free to enhance your project by integrating other Google Cloud technologies!

Ready to start building?

Head over to our hackathon website and watch our webinar to learn more, review the rules, and register.

Google Cloud announces first-of-its-kind generative AI leader certification

Wed, 14 May 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Organizations are rapidly integrating generative AI in ways that directly impact all employees, not just technical teams. We’re seeing this across a variety of customer use cases. For instance, Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs reports employees saving an average of five hours weekly using Gemini in Gmail for tasks like drafting emails. Hog Island Oyster is simplifying sales analysis for their teams by generating reports with Gemini in Sheets using simple prompts, and Formula E can automatically summarize 2-hour long race commentary into a 2-minute podcast in any language.

These real-world examples underscore a growing expectation in the job market. In fact, reports indicate that 62% of employers now expect candidates and employees to possess at least some familiarity with AI.¹ This clearly signals that a basic understanding of gen AI is no longer confined to technical roles. Professionals across fields like HR, marketing, finance, sales, and beyond increasingly need this foundational knowledge to succeed and contribute effectively to their organization’s business goals.

Recognizing this widespread need Google Cloud is announcing a first-of-its kind generative AI certification for non-technical learners—plus a new suite of no-cost training to help you prepare for that certification. That means you — and your company — can be among the first to take advantage of this opportunity to validate your strategic acumen in gen AI.

Be among the first to get certified in generative AI from Google Cloud

This isn't just another certification in a sea of technical qualifications. This is a first-of-its-kind credential, designed for visionary professionals like you — the managers, administrators, strategic leaders and more who understand that AI’s impact stretches far beyond code.

No other major cloud provider, no other leading AI innovator, offers a certification specifically tailored to empower business professionals to strategically harness the potential of generative AI. Imagine confidently guiding your teams, articulating the strategic value of generative AI, and driving its responsible adoption — all backed by this pioneering (and confidence boosting) certification.

Experts you can trust — who built the generative AI technology you’re learning.

You already know Google’s legacy in AI. For decades, we’ve been at the cutting edge, developing the technologies that are now reshaping industries. Now, you can directly benefit from that deep expertise. In fact, 8 in 10 Google Cloud learners report that Google Cloud significantly outperforms competitors in helping them stay ahead in the age of AI.² You're not just learning about AI; you're learning how to lead with it, guided by the true experts.

Becoming a certified leader enables faster promotion and more managerial opportunities

Research shows Google Cloud certifications are powerful catalysts for career growth. An overwhelming majority of our learners — eight out of ten — confirm that earning a cloud certification equips them with the in-demand skills that open doors to new opportunities and accelerate their path to promotion. The Generative AI Leader certification is your distinct advantage, positioning you as the champion of AI innovation within your organization and beyond.

Your moment to lead is now.

The Google Cloud Generative AI Leader certification exam ($99 USD, 90 minutes) will be available globally starting today, May 14th. It’s structured to evaluate your understanding across four critical domains:

Fundamentals of generative AI (~30%): Demonstrating a solid grasp of core concepts and terminology.
Google Cloud’s generative AI offerings (~35%): Describing how Google Cloud enables AI powered work, improves the customer experience, and empowers developers to build with AI.
Techniques to improve generative AI model output (~20%): Recognizing effective strategies for overcoming LLM limitations and optimizing results.
Business strategies for a successful gen AI solution (~15%): Recognizing Google-recommended practices for a secure, responsible, and transformational gen AI solution.

To help you prepare for the Generative AI Leader certification exam, we’ve developed a comprehensive and no-cost learning path available on Google Cloud Skills Boost, enriched with all new ways of learning, like hands-on “try it” experiences, and podcast-style videos, that bring you straight into gen AI tools like NotebookLM and Gemini.

Generative AI Leader Learning Path (7-8 hours)

This thoughtfully designed path includes five key courses:

Gen AI: Beyond the chatbot: You’ll establish a foundational understanding of generative AI, moving beyond common perceptions and exploring its diverse capabilities and the strategic advantages offered by Google Cloud.
Gen AI: Unlock foundational concepts: This course demystifies core generative AI concepts like Large Language Models (LLMs), different machine learning paradigms, and various data types, all while maintaining a business-focused perspective.
Gen AI: Navigate the landscape: You’ll gain a comprehensive overview of the broader AI ecosystem, including critical infrastructure considerations, different types of models and platforms, the role of agents, and diverse applications, with a specific focus on Google Cloud’s robust AI offerings.
Gen AI Apps: Transform your work: This practical course explores tangible applications of generative AI within a business context, highlighting powerful Google Cloud tools like Gemini for Workspace and NotebookLM, and guiding you in constructing effective prompts and building automated workflows to drive efficiency.
Gen AI Agents: Transform your organization: Taking a strategic lens, this course delves into how generative AI agents can drive significant organizational transformation. You’ll learn about customizing AI models, establishing key metrics for measuring impact, adapting to evolving trends, and effectively leading generative AI adoption initiatives.

Share with your team in chat or email: “Now, you can earn a first-of-its-kind Gen AI certification from Google Cloud starting May 14th. Let’s be the first to lead.”

Don't let this pivotal moment pass. Equip yourself with the strategic knowledge and validation you need to lead your organization into the AI-powered future. Begin your journey to becoming a Google Cloud Certified Generative AI Leader today.

^{1. Coursera Job Skills Report 2025
2. Google/Ipsos, Cloud Learning Services Market Pulse, Fielded Sept 17th - October 23rd 2024 (US, UK, FR, DE, IN, BR, MX, JP, AU/NZ)}

The ultimate guide to learning at Google Cloud Next 2025

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Get ready to dive deep and level up your cloud skills at Google Cloud Next '25. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting your cloud journey, you’ll have more learning opportunities at Next than ever before. From hands-on challenges to expert-led workshops on AI and ML, Next '25 (April 9-11, 2025) is your chance to transform your knowledge into real-world expertise.

Secure your ticket and register today.

The first-ever Skills Challenge: your chance to win big

This year, we're launching a new, on-the-ground game: The Skills Challenge. Think of it as your personal learning adventure at Google Cloud Next, complete with:

Hands-on labs: Master practical skills.
Certification kickstarters: Pave your way to certification.
AI Agent Builder Bar: Experience AI agent development.
Quizzathon at Makerspace: Test your Google Cloud knowledge and win.
Leaderboard competition: See how you stack up against your peers and compete for grand prizes.
Early access: Be the first to try new gamification features on Google Cloud Skills Boost.

Don't miss out on limited-edition swag and bragging rights on the leaderboard displayed at the Learning and Certification booth. Top the charts by the third day of Next for a chance to win a grand prize.

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Dive into expert-led workshops

Developers, these lab-style sessions are for you. They’re led by knowledgeable experts who can help you build better, faster, and smarter applications. Secure your spot today by adding training sessions to your agenda, such as:

Gain insights from breakout sessions and lightning talks

From in-depth technical learning to strategic insights for leaders, explore topics like credentialing a modern workforce, and building a culture of continuous learning with expert-led presentations and panel discussions. Hear from customers about their technical use cases and gain valuable takeaways about their specific approaches and solutions.

Session Day 1: Future-proof your AI skills: Credentialing the modern workforce
Session Day 2: The ROI of continuous learning: Build and validate skills to close the AI skills gap
Lightning talk Day 1: Google Launchpad: Building a Global Talent Pipeline for Cloud and AI

Recharge at the Google Developer Experts and Certified Lounge

Connect with your peers, recharge, and refuel at an exclusive lounge reserved for Google Developer Experts. Enjoy light refreshments, meetups, and a photowall to capture your Next '25 experience. When you register for Next, remember to identify yourself as Google Cloud Certified on your Profile page for easy lounge entry!

Can’t wait? Start learning today with Google Cloud Skills Boost

Don't wait until Next to start your learning journey. Jump-start your skills with courses, labs, learning paths and more on Google Cloud Skills Boost. Join the Innovators program to get 35 credits at no cost and use them to keep learning on Skills Boost.

We’ll see you April 9-11 at Google Cloud Next ‘25! Register today.

Get Google Cloud certified in 2025—and see why the latest research says it matters

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:00:00 +0000

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The cloud is evolving fast — and that means you need to evolve fast. With the explosion of AI, it’s not enough to build skills; you have to be able to prove you have them.

As more companies pursue digital transformation and AI adoption, validating skills quickly and effectively is more critical than ever. That’s not just the message everyone is hearing from recruiters and executives — we also have new research demonstrating the impact of getting Google Cloud certified. And recognizing just how valuable certification is, we've got three new ones to help drive your success in 2025.

A recent Ipsos study commissioned by Google Cloud surveyed more than 3,000 cloud practitioners, students, and decision-makers and confirmed that certifications not only increase career opportunities, they also drive efficiencies for digital businesses (which is pretty much every business these days). From seasoned professionals to those just starting out, as well as the organizations for which they work, everyone benefits from validating their cloud skills with trusted certifications.

Certifications: A catalyst for confidence and career advancement

Certifications are a key driver of career growth for engineers, data scientists, and other cloud professionals. For Google Cloud learners, certifications are considered the most valuable part of their learning journey. This is supported by the Ipsos data: eight in 10 Google Cloud learners report that certification equips them with the skills needed for in-demand roles, accelerates their promotion potential, and contributes to their overall professional success when they share their credentials online.

The Ipsos research also reveals the significant impact of Google Cloud certifications on students. Empowered by certifications, students report higher salaries and faster time-to-hire. An impressive nine in 10 Google Cloud certified students say their training made them more competitive in the job market, leading to better career opportunities.

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Helping cloud leaders find and build more efficient teams

Furthermore, certifications build confidence and efficiency for cloud leaders and decision-makers. Leaders from organizations using Google Cloud report that certifications significantly improve the efficiency of their cloud operations. They cite increased confidence in on-time project completion, accelerated onboarding to roles and projects, and greater confidence in a candidate’s knowledge during the hiring process. In fact, more than six in 10 leaders say one of the most important resources for cloud learners is getting certified, and approximately 70% believe certified employees are more productive.

Explore—and prepare for—the latest certifications from Google Cloud, integrated with AI concepts

To get started out take your training to the next level, you can explore the full catalog of Google Cloud certifications, which now include these newly launched certifications:

Associate Data Practitioner Certification: This certification is a great fit for data scientists who want to validate their Google Cloud data skills and knowledge, like ensuring data is clean, secure, and usable for AI and machine learning models. Follow this learning path to prepare for the exam.
Associate Google Workspace Administrator Certification: Validate your proficiency in the core skills required to successfully manage Google Workspace environments, including effectively managing the AI-powered assistant. Follow this learning path to prepare for the exam.
Professional Cloud Architect Certification [Renewal]: Prove your skills as a professional cloud architect with this new, streamlined recertification exam, focused on the application of generative AI solutions to solve real-world business challenges. Check out the exam guide to prepare for the exam.

How certification moves the needle: Hear from certified professionals

People are already transforming their careers and supercharging their teams with the help of certifications. Hear from a Chief Technology Officer, a senior cloud architect, a risk manager and a student in information systems about the difference a certification makes in their day-to-day:

The rapid pace of AI innovation has made skills validation an imperative — for cloud professionals and the companies they call home. Learn more about all your cloud credentialing options here or explore our full suite of Google Cloud learning tools at skills.google.

Discover Google Cloud careers and credentials in our new Career Dreamer

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 17:00:00 +0000

“Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it.” When Maya Angelou said that, she made — intentionally or not — a wise observation about careers in technology.

If you’ve never worked in the cloud, it can be hard to know where to start. Even if you’re a seasoned Cloud Architect, how do you pivot to your next big thing? And once you find it, once you’ve pinpointed the career of your dreams, then the biggest hurdle of all is knowing the skills and training that will help you get there. The not knowing is the hardest part.

For those dreaming a new direction in their careers, or a new one entirely, we give you Career Dreamer. This inspired, AI-powered career solution was released today by Google, and I recommend that every single person — no matter where you are in your career — check it out.

Career Dreamer uses generative AI to make career exploration and discovery a little easier and a lot more personalized. It helps you to quickly identify your unique skills and talents and how to talk about them. Then, it surfaces careers (based on job market data from Lightcast and the Bureau of Labor Statistics) that might be a good fit — including careers in the cloud.

Here’s my favorite part: Once you’ve got the career picked out, the tool shows you the creds — the certifications or certificates — you might need to get there. Among its suggested training resources are Google Cloud Skills Boost and Google Career Certificates.

Let’s say for example that you are recommended the role of “Analytics Manager” because you input that you have a real curiosity about data and a background in statistics. The tool will suggest industry-trusted certifications like the Cloud Digital Leader Certification for less technical folks, or even Associate Data Practitioner Certification if you’re ready to launch your cloud analytics career.

What we know from the research is that when people plug into great training content, they feel more empowered. In fact, a new study from Ipsos and Google Cloud showed that 9 in 10 students who use Google Cloud learning say it contributed to their goal of learning more about AI. Beyond students, 82% of Google Cloud learners say it’s boosted their confidence in their role. (Both are according to a Google/Ipsos Cloud Learning Services Market Pulse, fielded September 17 to October 23, 2024. Check back next week on the Google Cloud Blog, where we’ll be releasing this report in full).

As you explore the Career Dreamer to learn and imagine what careers might await on and off the cloud — above all, “forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.”

Empowering women with cloud and AI skills: Register for the Google Launchpad for Women series

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Last year, we offered our first ever “Google Launchpad for Women” series to empower women within our customer ecosystem to grow their cloud and AI skills. The response from our customers has been tremendous: more than 11,000 women across a breadth of roles - sales, leadership, marketing, finance, and more have completed previous editions of the program. As a result, they are building critical skills that help them put AI to work in their jobs, grow their careers, and help transform their businesses.

This year, in honor of International Women's Day, we are opening “Google Launchpad for Women,” to thousands of more customer participants, providing them with no-cost training, exam prep, and access to Google experts. Registration is now open to Google Cloud customers in the Americas, EMEA, and Japan, with the three-week program beginning on March 4th in Japan and March 6th in the Americas and EMEA. Program benefits include:

Expert-led training: Two days of in-depth, instructor-led training covering key cloud concepts and best practices.
Industry insights: Engage with Google Cloud experts through panel discussions on topics such as Generative AI.
Exam preparation: Dedicated sessions to prepare for the Cloud Digital Leader certification exam.
Complimentary exam voucher: Participants will receive a voucher for the $99 exam fee.

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Why these trainings are critical

Harnessing the power of cloud computing and AI is essential for all job roles, not just IT. As more businesses adopt AI, people across business roles utilize this technology every day and often make purchasing decisions about new AI platforms and tools. However, a talent gap remains, and is particularly pronounced for women, who represent about 14% of the global cloud workforce according to recent data from the World Economic Forum.

We aim to help our customers reduce this gap, ensure they have access to the skilled experts they need to advance their digital and AI transformations, and give more people opportunities to grow their careers and lead these transformations. Ultimately, those who complete the Google Launchpad for Women program will be well-equipped to achieve the Cloud Digital Leader certification, putting them at the forefront of the cloud and AI era.

Google Launchpad for Women is open to all Google Cloud customers, regardless of prior technical experience or role. We welcome women from all professional backgrounds who are eager to develop their cloud skills and advance their careers. While this initiative is specifically focused on women, we invite everyone to participate.

Sign up today

Visit the links below to learn more about each regional session and contact your sales rep to sign up today.

Boost your Looker Studio Pro skills with new on-demand course from Google Cloud

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Your business data sets you apart from the competition. It fuels your innovations, your culture, and provides all your employees a foundation from which to build and explore. Since 2022, enterprises in all industries have turned to Looker Studio Pro to empower their businesses with self-service dashboards and AI-driven visualizations and insights, complete with advanced enterprise capabilities and Google Cloud technical support.

As the Looker community has grown, we’ve gotten more requests for guidance on how users can make their Looker Studio Pro environments even stronger, and tap into more sophisticated features. Those requests have only increased, accelerated by the debut of Studio in Looker, which brings Looker Studio Pro to the broader Looker platform. To help, today we are debuting a new on-demand training course: Looker Studio Pro Essentials.

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Looker Studio Pro connects businesses’ need to govern data access with individual employees’ needs to explore, build and ask questions. This Google Cloud Skills Boost course helps users go beyond the basics of setting up reports and visualizations, and provides a deep dive into Looker Studio Pro’s more powerful features and capabilities.

Here's what you can expect to get from this course:

Gain a comprehensive understanding of Looker Studio Pro: Explore its key features and functionality, and discover how it elevates your data analysis capabilities.
Enhance collaboration: Learn how to create and manage collaborative workspaces, streamline report sharing, and automate report delivery.
Schedule and share reports: Learn how to customize scheduling options to your business, including delivery of reports to multiple recipients via Google Chat and email, based on your sharing preferences.
Ensure data security and control: Become an expert in user management, audit log monitoring, and other essential administrative tasks that can help you maintain data integrity.
Leverage Google Cloud customer care: Learn how to use Google Cloud Customer Care resources to find solutions, report issues, and provide feedback.

From your focus, to your employees, to your customers, your business is unique. That’s why we designed this course to bring value to everyone — from sales and marketing professionals, to data analysts, to product innovators — providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to fully leverage Looker Studio Pro in their own environments. Because in the gen AI era, how you leverage your data and invigorate your employees to do more is the true opportunity. Accelerate that opportunity with the new Looker Studio Pro Essentials course today.

Unwrap 12 days of training to learn generative AI this December

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Tis the season for learning new skills! Get ready for 12 Days of Learning, a festive digital advent calendar packed with courses, hands-on labs, videos, and community opportunities—all designed to boost your generative AI expertise. Discover a new learning resource on Google Cloud’s social channels every day for twelve days this December.

Before you start: Get no-cost access to generative AI courses and labs

Join the Innovators community to activate 35 monthly learning credits in Google Cloud Skills Boost at no cost. Use these credits to access courses and labs throughout the month of December—and beyond!

Ready to get started? Review all of the resources below.

Get festive with generative AI foundations

Learn how to use gen AI in your day-to-day work. These resources are designed for developers looking to gain foundational knowledge in gen AI.

A Developer’s Guide to LLMs: In this 10-minute video, explore the exciting world of large language models (LLMs). Discover different AI model options, analyze pricing structures, and delve into essential features.
Responsible AI: Fairness & Bias: This course introduces the concepts of responsible AI and shares practical methods to help you implement best practices using Google Cloud products and open source tools.
Gemini for end-to-end SDLC: This course explores how Google Cloud's Gemini AI can assist in all stages of the software development lifecycle, from building and debugging web applications to testing and data querying. The course ends with a hands-on lab where you can build practical experience with Gemini.
Responsible AI for Developers: Interpretability & Transparency: This course introduces AI interpretability and transparency concepts. Learn how to train a classification model on image data and deploy it to Vertex AI to serve predictions with explanations.
Introduction to Security in the World of AI: This course equips security and data protection leaders with strategies to securely manage AI within their organizations. Bring these concepts to life with real-world scenarios from four different industries.

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Cozy up with gen AI use cases

Launch these courses and labs to get more in-depth, hands-on experience with generative AI, from working with Gemini models to building agents and applications.

Build Generative AI Agents with Vertex AI and Flutter: Learn how to develop an app using Flutter and then integrate the app with Gemini. Then use Vertex AI Agent Builder to build and manage AI agents and applications.
Machine Learning Ops (MLOps) for Generative AI: In this course, learn how to overcome MLOps challenges and use generative AI to streamline processes.
Boost productivity with Gemini in BigQuery: This course provides an overview of features to assist in the data-to-AI workflow, including data exploration and preparation, code generation, workflow discovery, and visualization.
Build Generative AI Apps with Firebase Genkit: Learn how to integrate gen AI features into your applications using Firebase Genkit—from prototyping to production.
Website Modernization with Generative AI on Google Cloud: Transform your website experiences with gen AI with this hands-on course. Learn how to build a generative search experience in an interactive lab.
Work with Gemini models in BigQuery: Through a practical use case involving customer relationship management, learn how to solve a real-world business problem with Gemini models. Plus, receive step-by-step guidance through coding solutions using SQL queries and Python notebooks.

Get a jump-start on your New Year’s resolutions with AI Skills Quest

Get an early start on your learning goals by signing up for AI Skills Quest, a monthly learning challenge that puts gen AI on your resume with verifiable skill badges. When you sign up, choose your path based on your level of knowledge:

Beginner/Intermediate cohort: Learn fundamental AI concepts, prompt design, and Gemini app development techniques in Vertex AI, plus other Gemini integrations in various technical workflows.
Advanced cohort: Already know the basics, but want to add breadth and depth to your AI skills? Sign up for the Advanced path to learn advanced AI concepts like RAG and MLOps.

Ready to ring in the new year with new skills? Find more generative AI learning content on Google Cloud Skills Boost.

Beyond the basics: Build real-world gen AI skills with the latest learning paths from Google Cloud

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

November 15, 2024: The Cloud Innovators Plus program has evolved and is now the premium tier of the Google Developer Program.

The majority of organizations don’t feel ready for the AI era. In fact, 62% say they don’t have the expertise they need to unlock AI’s full potential.¹ As the leader of learning for Google Cloud, the only thing that surprises me about that number is how low it is. I meet with customers every day, and 100% of them flag some kind of AI skills gap.

Here’s the good news: that makes you — the developers, machine learning engineers, and data experts — invaluable. You are exactly the talent these organizations are looking for — but with the rate of change in AI, you have to stay on the cutting edge. A 2024 survey estimated that about 70% of AI talent needs to update their skills.² And yet, many technical professionals don’t have the training they need to move from theory to practice and integrate AI into their everyday work.

That’s why, today, I’m proud to share with you the latest learning offerings on generative AI from Google Cloud Skills Boost. Say hello to four new learning paths designed to equip developers with real-world generative AI skills to build applications, manage and secure machine learning models, generate impactful content, and analyze data like a pro. We’re talking in-depth courses that first guide you through building proficiency and then, ultimately, test your skills in a real-life challenge lab.

Get practical experience with gen AI use cases

Generative AI is powerful, but to actually see value from this technology in real-world use cases takes practical experience and technical knowledge. These new learning paths from Google Cloud, listed below, give you the generative AI skills you need to complete innovative work in your current roles — like improving customer experience or team productivity. This also opens up new career (and promotion) opportunities. Once you complete the hands-on training, you will receive a skill badge to showcase your expertise on your resume or social media channels:

Learning Path: Build and modernize applications with generative AI: Learn how to enhance your projects and build end-to-end applications on Google Cloud with the power of generative AI. This path will guide you through essential techniques and tools to integrate gen AI capabilities seamlessly into your development workflow.

Learning Path: Integrate generative AI into your data workflow: Learn how to use BigQuery Machine Learning for inference, work directly with Gemini models in BigQuery, and enhance your data team’s efficiency with Gemini's assistance. This path features a brand new course on boosting productivity with Gemini in BigQuery to aid in the data-to-AI pipeline.

Learning Path: Deploy and manage generative AI models: Learn how to manage the entire lifecycle of generative AI models, from development and deployment to monitoring — including introductions to responsible AI for developers. This path features a brand new course on security for AI models.

Learning Path: Generate smarter generative AI outputs: Learn how to build applications that generate text and visual content using generative AI. Develop an AI project on Google Cloud, use diffusion models for image generation, and build search applications with Vector Search and embeddings, then dive deeper into multimodal prompts and Multimodal RAG with Gemini.

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Innovators get full, no-cost access to gen AI learning paths

Earlier this year, we announced that every member of the Google Cloud Innovators community, our no-cost developer program, receives 35 unrestricted learning credits every month to use on courses and labs in Google Cloud Skills Boost. That’s enough to complete one of these new learning paths every month. Join Innovators today to activate your credits and start learning!

Innovators also get access to exclusive learning opportunities — like our latest challenge, AI Skills Quest, where you can immerse yourself in hands-on labs and earn skill AI badges alongside a cohort of like-minded peers.

The latest gen AI learning content — from security to productivity

While you’re sharing your AI skills in the Innovators community, why not check out the very latest in learning? These new learning paths feature three brand new courses in security, data analytics and agent building — all hot off the presses in Google Cloud Skills Boost:

Course: Introduction to security in the world of AI. Whether you’re a security engineer, an IT leader, an AI developer, or a less technical leader, this course will help you build a foundational understanding of Google’s approach to navigating the intersection of AI and security.

Course: Boost productivity with Gemini in BigQuery. Accelerate your data-to-AI pipeline, write better code, and visualize workflows easily with Gemini in BigQuery. This course equips you or your team with practical skills to boost productivity and unlock the full potential of your data.

Course: Build generative AI agents with Vertex AI and Flutter. Whether you're a seasoned app developer or just starting your journey with Flutter and Python, this course will help you build intelligent chat agents and fun, interactive experiences through generative AI.

Go from gen AI theory to practice

Google has been at the forefront of AI innovation for over a decade. These learning paths are your direct line to that expertise, crafted by the very people who shaped the field. My team is committed to empowering you with the skills to lead in this exciting era. Because ultimately, we all have a shared goal: to build AI-driven solutions that are responsible, fun to use, and — above all — genuinely improve people’s lives.

Join the Google Cloud Innovators program, get your 35 free credits every month, and dive head first into our new generative AI learning paths today.

^{1. Help Net Security, “The cloud skills gap is digital transformation's Achilles' heel,” Nov 14, 2023}
^{2. Pluralsight, “Pluralsight AI skills report,” 2024}