The cloud isn’t just changing — it’s accelerating. Artificial intelligence sits at the heart of this shift, sparking a transformation spanning entire ecosystems. Cloud-empowered AI is the new normal.

Google Cloud’s Jim Anderson discusses shifting AI dynamics.

At Google Cloud, this new wave is creating complexity, opportunity and fierce momentum for partners and customers alike, according to Jim Anderson (pictured), vice president of North America partner ecosystem and channels at Google Cloud.

“The complexity has increased,” he said. “We have exciting things like AI, and you need service partners to bring some of their domain expertise and process expertise to combine it with our core AI tech stack out there, and they’re seeing the value in doing that. That’s why they’re excited about working with Google right now.”

Anderson spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier for the Google Cloud Partner AI Series, during an exclusive interview with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Google Cloud’s goal of aligning partner capabilities with the power of its AI stack to maximize time-to-value. (* Disclosure below.)

Partners become co-creators as cloud-empowered AI takes hold

The AI boom — especially with agent-driven applications — is transforming cloud infrastructure while creating new levels of enterprise value. Agents are more than a snazzy buzzword; they’re a potential leap beyond software-as-a-service deployments, according to Anderson. Unlike single-function applications, agents perform multi-step processes, adapt through reasoning and provide enterprise-grade automation.

“We’re moving to an era where it’s not about the transaction; it’s around the journey, and that’s what AI is around the journey,” Anderson said. “We talked about LLMs at one point, then we talked about platforms. Right now, we’re talking about agents and evolving agents who, over time, do work for us. I think the market for labor is bigger than the market for SaaS.”

This evolution demands enormous computational power as expanding token sizes, growing cluster needs and a dramatically more complex data environment become the norm. To meet these demands, Google Cloud is delivering high-performance infrastructure, robust databases and foundational AI platforms to its growing partner ecosystem.

“We see just as many of our partners using Agentspace internally as a foundation for taking that process expertise and going to their customers to bring value,” Anderson said. “They’re using that to gain experience and learn along that journey. Now they’re using that learning experience to go bring value to the customer externally and help them with some of their complex challenges over there. You now have this cycle of innovation coming out from Google.”

AI has shifted the nature of engagement from being transactional to journey-oriented. In turn, Google’s ecosystem partners are no longer resellers or integrators — they’re co-creators, according to Anderson. This cloud-empowered AI dynamic is evident in how partners are adopting Google’s AI tools internally first — experimenting, learning and refining. Then, they transfer this expertise outward, applying it to solve customer problems in complex industries.

“What we see is that, sure, we have some tier-one partners out there,” Anderson said. “But increasingly we have regional niche partners that are specialized in a particular area and customers love using them. They want that level of expertise. We have to nurture and make sure they’re part of our enablement plan too. We’re scaling and making sure we’re leveraging our technology to make sure we can scale across a broader range of partners as we move forward.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Google Cloud Partner AI Series:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Google Cloud Partner AI Series. Neither Google Cloud, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE