Google Cloud Summit London 2026: Turning AI Ambition Into Business Results in the Agentic Enterprise

[00:00:04] - [Speaker 0]
What does the next chapter of AI actually look like when the experimentation phase is all over and businesses start putting it to work at scale? Well, this week, London becomes the center of that conversation as thousands of business leaders, developers, architects, and technology decision makers all gather at Tobacco Dock for Google Cloud Summit London twenty twenty six. Now, yes, AI has dominated conversations over the last two years, but many organizations are now beginning to ask a very different question. They are now starting to ask, how do we move beyond pilots, proof of concept, not to mention endless discussions to deliver measurable outcomes? Well, my guest today is uniquely positioned to answer that question.

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Her name is Maureen Costello, and she's the vice president for UK and Ireland and Sub Saharan Africa at Google Cloud. And she sits at the crossroads of some of the most ambitious AI projects taking place across business, government, financial services, retail, the public sector, and so many more. So today, I wanna learn more about why Google believes we're entering the era of the agentic enterprise, where AI systems move beyond responding to prompts and begin reasoning, planning, and carrying out complex workflows. I also wanna look at what does this mean in practice. Maybe bring it to life with real world examples.

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And, obviously, I'm UK based, so I also wanna learn more about why The UK or how The UK is positioning itself as an AI powerhouse and understand how organizations can prepare for a future where AI agents become digital teammates, and understand why trust, governance, security, and workforce readiness, how all these things could ultimately determine who succeeds in this next phase of adoption. So whether you are leading a business transformation, building AI applications, or simply trying to separate genuine progress from all the noise out there, today's conversation will offer you a front row seat to one of the biggest technology shifts of our time. But enough from me. Let me introduce you to Maureen right now. So thank you for joining me on the podcast today.

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Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:02:31] - [Speaker 1]
Thank you for having me, Neil. My name is Maureen Costello. I am Google Cloud's Vice President for The UK, Ireland and Sub Saharan Africa. So essentially I'm the face of Google Cloud out to our business here in The UK and also Ireland and Sub Saharan Africa. And I've been with Google, I joined eighteen months ago now, but I've spent twenty five plus years working in technology.

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And what gets me up in the morning and excited about my job is really working with both businesses and the government in terms of how they really use tech to help drive transformational change for either their business or for British citizens.

[00:03:11] - [Speaker 0]
Well, it's a pleasure to have you join me today. And, of course, it's an exciting week because the much anticipated Google Cloud Summit London is happening this week. So what can we expect this year, and what are the key announcements to watch out for?

[00:03:25] - [Speaker 1]
I'm so excited about our summit this year. If I reflect back twelve months ago, last year, we really spoke about the potential of generative AI. And really what we've seen over the last twelve months in particular is that potential has become an industry wide reality. So this year Google Cloud is going all in on AgenTika AI as we enter what we refer to as the era of the AgenTika enterprise. And how do I break that down?

[00:03:53] - [Speaker 1]
Really agentic AI is moving beyond systems that simply respond to those that can reason, plan and execute complex workflows autonomously. Just to give you a few examples about how we're working to help British businesses turn this momentum into something real, some examples. Firstly, following its historic $1,100,000,000 seed round, we're delighted to announce today that the London based startup, Ineffable Intelligence, has chosen Google Cloud as its preferred cloud partner to advance the next frontier of artificial intelligence. We're just so excited with that partnership, particularly that it's based here in London at Kings Cross. We're expanding our partnership with the banking leader HSBC, part of HSBC's ambitious digital transformation and technology strategy.

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We're working with them as they accelerate the use of Google Gemini models across their everyday banking, their customer experience, their wealth banking and really working with them in terms of how they address fin crime and really streamline global compliance. In terms of giving you an example of the work that we're doing with the UK government, we're helping to build a future ready public sector through our work with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government where we're helping to streamline, as we all know, time consuming tasks like turning legacy planning documents into usable data points to make faster decisions on everyday planning applications. So hopefully, there's some great examples to bring to life how we really made that change from AI being used in pilots or POCs to really being used every day in the work that in the way that work gets carried out.

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And we will have people listening all around the world, but the summit is in London. So I'd love to zoom in to The UK market in particular here, and and ask what what is different about it, especially when it comes to AI and cloud adoption. Are are there any unique opportunities or even pressures that you see in The UK?

[00:06:00] - [Speaker 1]
I get so excited about the opportunity here in The UK. The way that we look at it at Google is that The UK is an AI superpower in the banking. When we look at the talent, the research base, we have Google DeepMind based here in London and the ambition here, it's really to lead that next wave of innovation. And so The UK, when we look at our research that we've done, there's a huge opportunity to boost growth with AI. Our research shows that we can inject over £400,000,000,000 into The UK economy by 2030 through AI.

[00:06:37] - [Speaker 1]
And that's the equivalent of 2.6% in annualised growth. And alongside that, that's why it's super important to us here at Google Cloud to be really helping The UK to build that AI ready workforce. And so some examples about how we're making that real is that we're providing free generative AI training and no cost certifications through platforms like Google Cloud Skills Boost and the Google Career Launchpad. We've also committed to supporting the government's mission to upskill 100,000 public servants in AI by 2030. And through our partnership, for example, with Deloitte, we're working with them to have a thousand UK AI and data specialists upskilled in Gemini Enterprise.

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So there's a lot going on here in The UK, and we should be really proud of where we are, but very excited about the opportunity in the future.

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And I'm curious from everything that you're seeing and indeed the conversations that you're having with leaders, where is AI having the strongest impact here in The UK? Are are there any industries in particular that are gaining the most growth? What are you seeing here?

[00:07:45] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. We're seeing AI having a transformative impact across all industries in The UK. Some are moving faster than others. Think the way that I look at it is that AI we're seeing being used to drive efficiency, productivity, etcetera. It's being used for, I'm sure, as you and I using it to hopefully make our lives a bit easier each day.

[00:08:08] - [Speaker 1]
But the part of it, for me, that is fundamental is that we also see AI driving innovation and really looking to enhance the lives of everybody across The UK. If I give you some specific examples, if we take the finance sector, what we're seeing there is the range at which AI is being used. It's from providing capabilities from fraud detection to financial management. In, for example, Starling Bank earlier this year launched spending intelligence, which is a UK industry first AI tool that's using Google Gemini. And what vending intelligence is doing is it's designed to help customers manage their personal finances.

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And so what you're able to do is simply ask questions about how you're spending your money. I was slightly horrified to find how much I was spending on teas and coffees throughout the course of the week. In retail, another place where we're seeing AI being heavily used, it's creating that hyper personalised experiences that really start to reimagine. This is where we're seeing the innovation side of AI coming to the fore to reimagine customer engagement, loyalty, and to drive growth. We're working with Unilever and they're leveraging Google Cloud in terms of our advanced AI, our data platform, next gen marketing capabilities across brands, Neil, that you and I use every day, Daub, Vaseline, Hellmann's, to create a new model for how CPG brands are discovered, how we discover them as consumers, how we shop for them, as we see consumer journeys really shift to become more conversational and energetic experiences.

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Kingfisher,

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which

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has brands again that you and I use all the time and I'm sure your listeners use, B and Q for example, they're really improving their online shopping experience. How they're using Agenetic AI is to move beyond doing searches for products in terms of just keywords to really moving more towards what we call commerce search, enabling proactive AI driven shopping assistance to change the experience. Then again in the public sector we're seeing the government wanting to use AI to act as a driving force to not only transform the services that you and I experience and importantly citizen outcomes, but also to generate savings. A year ago, the Prime Minister announced Extract, which is a tool that we've been working with the UK government on at London Tech Week in 2025. It's an AI powered tool using Google's DeepMind Gemini and it allows councils to speed up the process of turning planning documents into data.

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So hopefully, that gives you a flavor of what we're seeing across multiple industries, in terms of how AI is really being embraced across the across the market.

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I love that example where the Starlink bank there managing your finances more effectively. There's a lot of talk around subscription fatigue and people not realizing just how many subscriptions they've got until they see their statements. So I see it working there. I've got a friend personally who who recently found out using that, app that, I think he spends between 150 to £200 a month just on coffee. Did you come close to that figure, or you really

[00:11:27] - [Speaker 1]
just revealing what I spent on coffee, let alone what I spent at my hairdresser.

[00:11:33] - [Speaker 0]
A little bit. And, of course, we're seeing a space here that is evolving rapidly. And with Agenda k I firmly on their business agenda, I've been of 15 tech conferences from Egypt to Vegas. That's all everyone's talking about. And as organizations adapt and shift from generative models to autonomous AI agents, what are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges that you're seeing here?

[00:11:57] - [Speaker 1]
It's a really good question and one that our customers are asking us every day. So the way that I look at it is that Agentic AI, it really will mark a gear shift in how businesses operate. If you think about it, you're looking to have intelligent agents embedded into processes to help employees work faster, smarter, differently. And we also know that AI will unlock efficiencies and what we're looking for is it to provide better experiences for both employees and customers. But what's interesting for me is one of the pockets where we see tremendous value is for small businesses.

[00:12:36] - [Speaker 1]
And I say this because I grew up working in my family's small business. So this is one that's close to my heart. And our AI Works research found that for small businesses, AI can provide a 20% productivity boost. The reason why that's important is because our research also shows us that owners of small businesses don't have that time that they need to be thinking about where do I take my business next, How do I drive research, etcetera? And if you think about it, a 20% productivity boost gives you a day back.

[00:13:07] - [Speaker 1]
And that's really important to small businesses in terms of as they think about where do I go next with my work. And even just to have a day back to be doing something else in your business. That's a tremendous uplift for a small business owner. But the call out that I would make in terms of challenges and how we make sure that we address them is that as we see this move towards a more autonomous enterprise, one where agents are acting with independence and reliability as a member of a team. Think about this.

[00:13:40] - [Speaker 1]
It's like if I'm a manager, part of my team will be a team of agents. And so what's super important there is that businesses have that foundation that can sustain that level of trust. And so that means greater control over how and where data is processed and enhanced visibility across those cloud environments. And so Google Cloud, and we'll be talking about this at Summit, is we're strengthening our data residency commitments here in The UK. We're giving UK customers in country AI processing for sensitive sovereign workloads.

[00:14:16] - [Speaker 1]
And with our recent acquisition of Wizz, we have a comprehensive security platform that helps mitigate threats across the entire cloud estate. And so that means having an AI ready foundation, one that is both secure, highly governed and transparent, and that also supports businesses as they scale responsibly and with speed. In conversations that I have with business leaders AI is only going to move as fast as we can ensure that sovereignty requirements are met and security is there and people trust that they're able to scale their businesses safely and securely. I think it's a reflection about where we are on this journey. If last year I was only mentioning Agenic once, I can assure you that it is the topic of discussion across all of the summit activities this year.

[00:15:05] - [Speaker 0]
And as leaders of organizations carefully navigate scaling Agentic AI, how are solutions like Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise? How are you helping them move from those early pilots and bravely into real operational systems that that deliver value and improve business outcomes? Because I know there's a big focus on that this year, but how do you see Google Cloud's Gemini enterprise playing such a big role here?

[00:15:29] - [Speaker 1]
For organizations to what we see, the the winners in in this agentic AI era, it's organisations need to be able to build, use, deploy and manage AI. And really all of us to be able to do that from what I call a single pane or a single destination. That's what Gemini Enterprise is designed to deliver for both government and for small businesses, enterprise, etcetera. Gemini Enterprise, the way that I think about it is it's an end to end system that combines access to frontier AI models, an intuitive UI, a secure development framework and the ability to successfully deploy agents at scale. So with Gemini Enterprise it allows workers to be able to create their own agents and agentic workflows to speed up processes.

[00:16:21] - [Speaker 1]
It allows workers to find formally siloed information. Think about how good Google is at search. And now we're able to search across all that information, whether it be structured, unstructured data. And then it also allows workers to develop new offerings for customers. And importantly, all of that in a secure setting that meets the highest regulatory and compliance standards, whether we're working in financial services, telcos, retail, etcetera.

[00:16:48] - [Speaker 0]
And we will have a few business leaders listening that simply don't feel ready for Agentic AI yet. They may find it all completely overwhelming, excited, but cautious. Maybe they're in a regulated industry and see things differently. So what areas should they be looking at first to to get started on their transformation and start those conversations?

[00:17:08] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. And and, firstly, I understand you know, I I work with different biz with business leaders across different organizations, and leadership teams are at different stages on this journey. You know? Some are throwing themselves into into the discussion and really hands on into the tooling. Others are more hesitant in terms of looking to move.

[00:17:28] - [Speaker 1]
There are some of the reasons there that you cited. But in terms of the way that we look at it, to get started with AgenTik AI, a couple of callouts I would make. One is you're going to be building on strong data foundations. I'll touch a little bit on that in terms of what I mean. There is absolutely something here which is around that culture of learning.

[00:17:51] - [Speaker 1]
So in terms of building on cultures of learning that organisations have. And then also thinking about how do I get that first success? So choosing where agentica.ai is going to be implemented to show that return on the investment. Let me start with data readiness. The way that we look at it is we want to meet organisations where they are on their data.

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Organisations will often find themselves struggling with, as I mentioned earlier, fragmented data silos, poor data quality. They'll have pieces of paper that have got handwritten notes on it. They may not have all the governments that they believe they need to go into a world of AI. And they'll have a host of other data challenges that hinder scaling at jentic.ai. But we look at that in terms of being able to meet our customers where they are, particularly on their data journey.

[00:18:45] - [Speaker 1]
With some of our newer data products building on our knowledge catalogue, building on our knowledge graph, we really are looking to meet customers where they are so that they're able to access all of that data in what I would call an intelligence layer that then you can use the AI to extract the value from that data. And so that gives organisations the chance to start to use AI where they are today but also the time that some of them may need to continue to work on their data foundations. But the other point that I would make is that scaling Agenetic AI though, it's about more than technology. It's also, and I touched on this, that culture transformation. If you were looking to simply deploying solutions without adequately preparing employees, it can lead to confusion, uncertainty and ultimately resistance.

[00:19:35] - [Speaker 1]
And there's so much conversation going on, not only within industry but in the public domain about this topic. And so as organisations are looking to scale AI it's really about looking to create that confidence with AgenTek AI. And so part of that means defining a vision for these deployments and investing in the skills and competencies so that employees can get the most out of these solutions. I also am a firm believer in that the change must start with business leaders and them taking a considered approach to how you're going to approach Agenetic AI adoption. And in today's resource constrained environment where you place your investment bets, it really counts.

[00:20:18] - [Speaker 1]
And so this is where for me a business leader today is also a technology leader. Right? And so business and technology leaders working together to really think about what are those first areas in their operations that are most primed for Agenetic AI to deliver benefits so that you can actually build on success and build confidence in your organization.

[00:20:41] - [Speaker 0]
And for people listening, I think it'd be great to settle a few nerves around things like ROI, measurable difference, improving business outcomes. You don't have to mention any names, but do you have any real world examples or overview of cases where Google Cloud is supporting businesses today to achieve that measurable value with AgenTKI today? Because I think Yeah. Would really bring it to life.

[00:21:02] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. No. I'd love to share actually a couple of examples that we'll be talking about here at the London Cloud Summit. So firstly, THG Ingenuity. It's delivered a transformative eight times higher conversion rate via its AI shopping assistant, which acts as a dedicated expert for every online shopper that uses THG, Ingenuity.

[00:21:24] - [Speaker 1]
The Department for Transport, the DFT, is utilising Gemini to streamline public consultation analysis, and that's a move projected to save £4,000,000 annually. Also at Summit, and this is about creating space to help British organisations move beyond that AI exploitation to deploying AI systems at scale, we're announcing two spaces. Firstly, with Deloitte, one of our partners, where Deloitte has announced a new AI studio at its London office and it's developed in collaboration with Google Cloud which will undertake a massive upskilling program to run industry sprints to help their clients validate agentic solutions. And then later this year, we will also be announcing the model garden at our new building, Platform 37 in Kings Cross, which will be a confidential space where customers can experiment with our latest advancements in AI and engage with our Googlers to solve real world challenges. So we're seeing those people using this in the real world today.

[00:22:29] - [Speaker 1]
But also we're working with both our partners and in our own spaces to be able to help our customers as they go on this journey. And something I'm very excited about, Neil, is that we're announcing today our model garden at Platform 37 and we're going to open it later in the year. And this is a confidential space where we will be where our customers can come and experiment with our latest advancements in AI and engage with our Googlers to help them solve real world challenges.

[00:22:57] - [Speaker 0]
Exciting times ahead there. And if I did pull out a virtual crystal ball on you now and ask you to look towards the future, what do you think will define the next phase of cloud and AI adoption in The UK? I know the pace of change at the moment is almost impossible to predict the future. But where do you see all this heading, and what what's that next phase look like in The UK?

[00:23:18] - [Speaker 1]
Firstly, I'm excited by it, you know, and and I'm already getting the the the buzz here at and it's day zero here at Summit. And and, you know, I'm just really looking forward to what we've got coming over the next couple of days. But in terms of my crystal ball and looking to the future and I think, you know, if I had to say where are we gonna be in twelve months time, We'll see a transition to a fully agentic, autonomous AI era as organizations realize the benefits it can unlock. We've spoken to a number of examples today. We're going to have many more in twelve months' time.

[00:23:53] - [Speaker 1]
And what does this look like? It means that we'll see AI embedded across the enterprise in functions ranging from HR to finance, sales, executing those complex business processes, not only giving efficiency gains but more importantly those economic impacts on a broader scale. For me it's about moving beyond the experimentation to the real world deployment. And that requires more than models. It requires, as I spoke to, those foundations for AI at scale in terms of having the right infrastructure built for AI capable of supporting everything from model training to large scale production workloads.

[00:24:36] - [Speaker 1]
And this transition will be underpinned by that recognition of the need for an end to end platform to feed AI the data necessary to deliver those insights that we're really looking for across every element of the business. If I had to just step back, it's really about, for me, The UK continuing to be one of the great hubs for AI development in Europe and the world and really maintaining its position as a global AI leader. To do that, I believe that at Google we're uniquely positioned to support British businesses and the government as we continue to deliver across that entire AI stack from infrastructure and data to Gemini models, the security there that we touched on, as well as the tools that developers will need in applications. Really, stepping back, I would say, it's providing, hopefully, that complete foundation for AI innovation for The United Kingdom.

[00:25:33] - [Speaker 0]
Well, I've loved chatting with you today, and it's a big week in London. Google Cloud Summit twenty twenty six for people that are attending, wanting to follow it virtually, or just wanna get confidential hands on with other Googlers and set up a few meetings or meet you and your team, etcetera. Where would you like me to point everyone listening that are just looking for more information?

[00:25:52] - [Speaker 1]
I'm looking forward to seeing many people, over the next two days and meeting as many as possible. The best place to go for more information is just to the Google Cloud blog.

[00:26:03] - [Speaker 0]
Awesome. Well, I will add links to the Google Cloud blog, your LinkedIn, the Cloud Summit website, and a few other links in there. I urge people to check out. It's a big week in London, as we've said, and so many big announcements coming out of that. So I urge people to check out what's been happening there.

[00:26:18] - [Speaker 0]
But more than anything, thank you for bringing it all to life today with real world use cases. Really appreciate your time.

[00:26:25] - [Speaker 1]
Thank you so much, Neil. And I'm very happy to say that we've got good weather here at the summit.

[00:26:30] - [Speaker 0]
So listening to Maureen today, I think one thing came incredibly clear very quickly, and that is the conversation around AI has changed dramatically in just twelve months. At last year's Google Cloud Summit, the focus was largely on potential. This year, the discussion has shifted towards deployment, outcomes, agentic enterprises, and how organizations can safely introduce agentic AI into their everyday operations. So from helping banks tackle financial crime to improving customer experiences and supporting government departments in modernizing their services. I think the example shared today really brought to life how AI is increasingly becoming part of very real business processes rather than those future road maps.

[00:27:20] - [Speaker 0]
And as an ex IT guy, I'm particularly interested in that balance between opportunity and responsibility. Because while the promise of productivity gains, smarter decision making, and new customer experience is all attracting is all attracting attention, it's good to see the themes of trust, security, sovereignty, and workforce readiness all surfacing throughout our conversation today. And I think these topics are what could ultimately shape how quickly organizations are able to move forward. So as Google Cloud Summit gets underway here in London, the conversations taking place inside Tobacco Doc will offer a fascinating snapshot of where the industry stands today and where it could be heading next. But I'd love to hear your perspective here.

[00:28:07] - [Speaker 0]
Are you seeing organizations, or is your organization moving beyond AI experimentation into meaningful adoption? Are you or is you or your business still searching for the right starting point? As always, you'll find links to everything Maureen talked about today, Google Cloud, the summit, etcetera. I'll put a lot of links in the blog post associated to this episode over at techtalksnetwork.com where you will also find 4,000 interviews, and you can even leave me an audio message. So go check that out.

[00:28:38] - [Speaker 0]
Let me know your thoughts. If you'd like to come on here and share your story, happy to do that too. A big thank you to Denodo for helping me make more than 60 monthly interviews possible across the tech talks network. And as businesses move from GenAI to Agentic AI, trusted data becomes everything. Everything from GenAI to AgenTik AI, Denodo is helping organizations build intelligent, secure, and scalable AI solutions with data access, governance, and explainable results.

[00:29:12] - [Speaker 0]
So build AI that you can trust and do it with Denodo. And you can learn more by simply visiting denodo.com. But that's it for today, so thank you for listening. I'll be back again tomorrow with another conversation. Hopefully, you'll join me again then.

[00:29:29] - [Speaker 0]
Bye for now.