Google's old AI pitch was simple: ask a question, get an answer.
The new pitch is a lot bigger, and a lot more expensive.
At Google I/O 2026, the company introduced Gemini Spark, a cloud-based agent built to handle real tasks on your behalf rather than just respond to prompts. Think email triage, calendar planning, and follow-ups that get done while your phone is in your pocket.
Spark runs all the time in the background, so it keeps working even after you lock your phone or close your laptop. Google is pitching it as the next step past chatbots, an AI that can act on its own rather than wait for the next prompt.
It rolls out as a beta to trusted testers this week, with US-based Google AI Ultra subscribers getting access starting next week. Google hasn't said when broader access will open.
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Google's new AI Ultra plan costs $100 a month, putting it about five times higher than the standard $20 ChatGPT Plus or Gemini Advanced tier. That works out to roughly $1,200 a year for one tool.
Google isn't hiding the play, since AI Ultra is aimed at developers, creators, and power users who can actually justify that price tag. It joins the existing AI Plus and AI Pro tiers, and Google also cut its top-end Ultra plan from $250 down to $200 a month.
For investors, the price matters more than the product, since it tests whether anyone outside the enterprise market will pay premium prices for AI. If buyers show up at $100, AI revenue forecasts across the industry get a lot more bullish overnight.
Google also unveiled Gemini 3.5 Flash, a faster model now live in the Gemini app and Search, alongside Gemini Omni, a new video model rolling out to paid subscribers through the Gemini app and Google Flow.
Also new: the Daily Brief feature inside Gemini, which pulls from Gmail and Calendar to give you a single morning summary, rolling out to US AI subscribers today. It's the kind of feature Apple has been promising for two years and shipping in pieces.
On the hardware side, smart glasses are coming this fall through partners Samsung, Warby Parker, and Gentle Monster, with audio versions launching first and display versions following later.
The agent race just got real, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and now Google all racing to ship AI that doesn't just talk back, it acts. Spark is Google's opening offer, and Ultra is the price tag attached to it.
The next question is whether anyone will actually pay $100 a month to find out.
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