Three Frontiers Shaping AI Model Capability

Michael Gerstenhaber, product vice president at Google Cloud, oversees Vertex AI, the company’s unified platform for deploying enterprise AI. He observes that AI models are currently being measured against three distinct frontiers. The first frontier is raw intelligence, where the focus is on delivering the highest quality output, such as generating the best possible code, regardless of the time it takes.

The second frontier concerns latency, or response time. In use cases like customer‑support interactions, speed becomes critical; a model must provide accurate answers quickly enough to keep users engaged, even if that means sacrificing some depth of intelligence.

The third frontier is cost‑effective scalability. Large‑scale applications—such as internet‑wide content moderation—require models that can operate at massive, unpredictable volumes without prohibitive expense. Organizations must balance the highest possible intelligence against the budget they can sustain at scale.

Why Agentic AI Has Not Yet Exploded

Gerstenhaber notes that despite impressive demonstrations, agentic AI has not produced the sweeping changes many expected. He attributes this to a lack of essential infrastructure. Companies still need robust patterns for auditing agent behavior, authorizing data access, and ensuring compliance before AI agents can be safely deployed in production environments.

Production adoption is a lagging indicator of a technology’s true potential. Because organizations must first develop and validate these operational safeguards, the rollout of agentic systems naturally takes time.

Google’s Unique Vertical Integration

Gerstenhaber highlights Google’s distinctive position in the AI landscape. The company controls the entire stack—from data centers and electricity supply to custom chips and proprietary models. This vertical integration extends to the inference layer, agentic infrastructure, and a suite of APIs that support memory, interleaved code writing, and compliance governance. Google also offers chat interfaces for both enterprise and consumer users, reinforcing its end‑to‑end capability.

These integrated assets enable Google to provide developers with access to the most advanced models while maintaining strict oversight and cost controls, positioning the firm to address the three frontiers more effectively than many competitors.

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