Google enhances agent toolkit & unveils updates for secure AI

Google has announced a range of updates aimed at enhancing its intelligent agent development tools, management platforms, and agent-to-agent protocols.

The company has released the production-ready version 1.0.0 of its Python Agent Development Kit (ADK). This development, according to Google, marks a significant milestone in providing stability and flexibility for building sophisticated software agents that can be deployed in live environments. The Python ADK has already been in use by several organisations, including Renault Group, Box and Revionics, who have offered feedback during its earlier phases.

Alongside the Python toolset, Google is extending its ADK to support the Java ecosystem, with the initial release of Java ADK version 0.1.0. Java developers are now able to integrate the ADK into their Maven projects by including a dedicated dependency. This expansion is intended to provide Java users the same flexibility and capabilities already available to Python developers for agent development.

Google states that "empowering developers with a platform that offers flexibility, trust, and comprehensive capabilities is key to realising this potential." The company's updates are "designed to help you build and manage your intelligent agents with unprecedented ease and power."

Updates also include the launch of the Agent Engine UI, an interface for managing the lifecycle of intelligent agents within the Vertex AI Agent Engine. The UI offers a dashboard integrated into the Google Cloud console, providing developers with tools to inspect deployed agents, review metrics such as requests and CPU usage, trace and debug sessions, and monitor agent behaviour. This is expected to simplify the process of maintaining and optimising intelligent agents in production environments.

In the area of secure agent communication, Google has rolled out version 0.2 of its Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol specification. The latest update adds support for stateless interactions to facilitate more lightweight communication when session management is unnecessary. In addition, authentication procedures have been formalised based on an OpenAPI-like schema, aiming to make security requirements clearer and improving overall reliability of agent-to-agent communications.

The company is also introducing the official Python SDK for the A2A protocol to assist developers in adopting and integrating the protocol in their Python-based agents. The SDK comes with a collection of tools designed to make it easier to build and implement communication functionalities between intelligent agents.

Google highlights significant industry momentum for the A2A protocol, citing new partners and projects in its growing ecosystem. Auth0 is launching sample open source agents to demonstrate the use of A2A and Auth0's GenAI authentication for secure, multi-agent communications. Box AI Agents are now able to use A2A to collaborate with external agents for managing unstructured content like scans and images, extracting key details such as dates and contractual terms, and completing complex processes without having to leave the content environment.

Microsoft has announced support for the protocol in Azure AI Foundry and introduced the capability for Microsoft Copilot Studio to invoke any A2A agent. Demonstrations have also highlighted the use of A2A for workplace productivity, enabling multiple agents to be invoked with Microsoft Entra Agent ID and Microsoft Graph.

SAP is integrating A2A protocol support into its AI assistant, Joule. This addition will allow Joule to orchestrate agents within its ecosystem and invoke agents built using Google ADK, thereby providing users access to agents across different systems without requiring context switching within the user interface.

Zoom has committed to supporting the A2A protocol and Agentspace integration, with the objective of advancing multi-agent collaboration throughout its open platform.

Google commented, "We are incredibly excited about these updates and believe they will empower you to build even more sophisticated, reliable, and impactful intelligent agent solutions. These advancements in our ADK, Agent Engine, and A2A protocol are designed to provide you with a comprehensive and flexible platform to bring your most ambitious agent-driven projects to life."

The updates cover production infrastructure, user interfaces, communications protocols, and industry partnerships, reflecting broad efforts by Google to support enterprise and developer adoption of intelligent agent systems.