Google I/O 2025 Explainer

Google’s flagship event, Google I/O brought together developers from around the world for a first look at its latest developments. It made close to 100 announcements, and to help you navigate them Francis Xavier Programmatic Lead Google NZ, and a member of the IAB New Zealand Emerging Technology Council has short-listed the highlights. There was a significant focus on the advancements of more intelligent, agentic, and personalised AI and its integration into Google's product ecosystem.

Author: Francis Xavier, Programmatic Lead Google NZ and IAB New Zealand Emerging Technology Council member.

A major highlight at Google I/O 2025 was the evolution of the Gemini models. Gemini 2.5 Flash has been improved across key benchmarks, while Gemini 2.5 Pro is being enhanced with Deep Think, a new reasoning mode utilising parallel thinking techniques. These advancements are powered by Google's seventh-generation TPU, Ironwood, which boosts AI workload performance.

Google Search is being reimagined with an
all-new AI Mode, providing an end-to-end AI experience for longer and more complex queries. This is an extension of AI Overviews, which have already reached 1.5 billion users.

Personalised AI assistance is also taking a leap forward with Gemini Live, which now incorporates camera and screen-sharing capabilities from Project Astra. A new Agent Mode in the Gemini app will allow the AI to manage tasks on the user's behalf. 

Google introduced Google Beam, a new platform for immersive video communication and Android XR, a new OS that brings AI, VR and AR to headsets and glasses. 

For developers, Google announced Jules, an autonomous coding agent, Stitch, a new experiment from Google Labs that allows you to turn text prompt and image inputs into complex UI designs and frontend code.  

For creators, Google unveiled new generative AI tools, including the Veo 3 video model with native audio generation, the Imagen 4 image model, and Flow, an AI filmmaking tool. These announcements collectively demonstrate Google's commitment to building a future where AI is seamlessly integrated into our daily lives, making it more helpful and accessible for everyone. 

Google made close to 100 announcements, here is the list of announcements.  You can also watch the keynotes or have Gemini summarise them for you. Get early access to upcoming AI innovations and discover experimental projects on Google Labs.