Google Cloud enhances protection against AI threats: new security agents introduces at Next '26

At the Next '26 conference, Google Cloud announced the launch of new AI security agents for Google Security Operations, including Threat Hunting and Detection Engineering, designed to counter rapidly evolving threats accelerated by artificial intel

At the Google Cloud Next '26 conference, held on April 22, 2026, Google Cloud announced the launch of a new generation of AI security agents designed to strengthen protection against rapidly evolving cyber threats accelerated by artificial intelligence. These innovations aim to scale security across multi-cloud environments and workloads. Among the key new features are three new agents for Google Security Operations. The Threat Hunting agent, available in preview mode, is designed for proactive searching for hidden attacks and patterns. Also in preview is the Detection Engineering agent, which identifies coverage gaps and automatically creates threat detection methods. Soon, the Third-Party Context agent will join them, enriching workflows with data from external sources.

The effectiveness of Google Cloud's AI solutions is confirmed by the existing Triage and Investigation agent, which processed over 5 million alerts in the past year, reducing analysis time from a typical 30 minutes to 60 seconds thanks to integration with Gemini. New security approaches are becoming critically important in the AI era, as research from Google Cloud and M-Trends 2026 shows that attackers are actively using artificial intelligence to increase the speed and sophistication of attacks.

For example, the time it takes for information to be transferred from initial access to a secondary attacker has decreased from eight hours to 22 seconds over the past three years. In response, Google Cloud is employing a comprehensive AI approach that spans the entire technology stack—from chips to models—integrating analytics from the world's largest threat observatory, Mandiant expertise, and advanced developments from Google DeepMind. The implementation of these solutions provides organizations with significant operational benefits. According to IDC, companies report a substantial reduction in mean time to detect and respond, a decrease in false positives, and increased analyst productivity thanks to AI context and automation. These improvements directly contribute to better business outcomes, reducing downtime periods, lowering incident costs, and strengthening leadership's confidence in the level of security.

Diego Martinez Blanco from BBVA emphasized that AI agents enable scaling security capabilities and focusing on tasks that require human attention. Also, in the context of these improvements, extended support for Google Cloud's Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Google Security Operations is now generally available.