Why Google's Gemini Spark AI agent could be a game changer

MoneyWatch Why Google's Gemini Spark AI agent could be a game changer .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-moneywatch.jpg'); } By Megan Cerullo Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting. Read Full Bio Megan Cerullo May 21, 2026 / 5:21 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Google's Gemini Spark AI tool could be a game-changer for consumers wading into the world of agentic AI, according to technology experts.Google announced the new tool — the internet giant's answer to OpenClaw, the autonomous AI agent being hyped by tech enthusiasts and developers — this week during a rollout of new AI features that Google said can complete tasks for users. "There is a paradigm shift happening right now where AI is going from a chat interface to actually being able to do things for you," Clarence Lee, a tech entrepreneur and visiting lecturer at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, told CBS News.  Lee compared an AI agent like Gemini Spark to a personal assistant to whom you can assign tasks, such as composing emails, making restaurant reservations or booking hotels. "It's like having a team that you can delegate things to," he said. For an individual AI agent to offer optimal performance, it must understand its human users, said Karan Girotra, professor of operations, technology and innovation at Cornell University. "You give it an objective, and it takes actions to accomplish that on your behalf," he told CBS News. "For it to be good, it needs intelligence, context and information relevant to those actions."That's where Google could have an edge on competitors. Gemini Spark is integrated into Google's widely used suite of digital tools, including Gmail and Google Calendar, gi...