{"slug": "google-expects-ai-agents-to-automate-data-preparation-tasks-while-hiring-of", "title": "Google expects AI agents to automate data preparation tasks while hiring hundreds of engineers", "summary": "Google Cloud launched a new AI agent in BigQuery on April 22, 2025, that lets data teams build and manage data pipelines using natural language, targeting the 60-80% of time spent on data preparation. Early adopters reported a 90% reduction in ETL migration timelines, and Google plans to hire hundreds of forward-deployed engineers starting in 2026 to help enterprise customers adopt its AI products.", "body_md": "Via 9to5google.com\n\n# Google expects AI agents to automate data preparation tasks while hiring hundreds of engineers\n\nThe company's new BigQuery data engineering agent promises to eliminate the grunt work that consumes most of data teams' time, but Google is betting humans aren't going anywhere.\n\nGoogle Cloud is rolling out an AI agent designed to let data teams build and manage pipelines using plain English instead of code, targeting the tedious preparation work that eats up the majority of their productive hours. At the same time, the company plans to hire hundreds of engineers to help enterprise customers actually use the thing.\n\n## What the Data Engineering Agent actually does\n\nThe new tool lives inside BigQuery, Google’s cloud data warehouse, and functions as an autonomous agent that can construct, modify, and manage data pipelines based on natural language commands. Instead of writing complex ETL (extract, transform, load) scripts manually, a data engineer could theoretically describe what they need in conversational terms and let the agent handle the plumbing.\n\nThe preview launched on April 22, 2025, with general availability targeted for April 22, 2026.\n\nGoogle Cloud has been expanding BigQuery’s AI capabilities across multiple domains, including data science workflows, conversational analytics, and observability tasks.\n\nData preparation—the cleaning, formatting, and pipeline management that precedes any actual analysis—reportedly consumes 60-80% of data teams’ productive hours.\n\nEarly adopter customers have reported a 90% reduction in ETL migration timelines using the new automation tools.\n\n## The hiring plan\n\nGoogle announced plans to hire hundreds of forward-deployed engineers, or FDEs, starting in 2026. These are technical specialists who will embed directly with enterprise customers to help them adopt Google Cloud AI products like Gemini and Vertex AI agents. Google Cloud leadership has been emphasizing that effective enterprise AI deployment requires technical resources that go well beyond what a traditional sales team can provide.\n\n## The competitive landscape for enterprise AI agents\n\nThe enterprise data management space has become a battleground for agentic AI, with Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Databricks all investing heavily in similar capabilities.\n\nThe 90% reduction in ETL migration time reported by early adopters is a significant metric for enterprise procurement. ETL migrations are notoriously painful, often taking months and requiring significant engineering resources.\n\n**Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our\n\n[Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-expects-ai-agents-to-automate-data-preparation-tasks-while-hiring-of", "canonical_source": "https://cryptobriefing.com/google-ai-agents-data-preparation/", "published_at": "2026-08-21 14:37:21+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-21 14:44:47.927638+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-agents", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["Google Cloud", "BigQuery", "Gemini", "Vertex AI", "Microsoft", "Amazon Web Services", "Databricks"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-expects-ai-agents-to-automate-data-preparation-tasks-while-hiring-of", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-expects-ai-agents-to-automate-data-preparation-tasks-while-hiring-of.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-expects-ai-agents-to-automate-data-preparation-tasks-while-hiring-of.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-expects-ai-agents-to-automate-data-preparation-tasks-while-hiring-of.jsonld"}}