• Google Cloud and Google DeepMind CEOs headline "Gemini for the United Kingdom" event in London, alongside industry leaders from BT Group and WPP
• Google Cloud unveils new AI product updates, including the launch of Chirp 3 on Vertex AI and UK data residency for Agentspace
• Google Cloud expands its AI skilling initiatives, increasing access to training and certification programs for developers, students, professionals, and higher education institutions in the UK -- all at no cost
• Google Cloud's Startup Program to offer up to £280,000 for AI startups across the UK

LONDON, March 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Google Cloud today announced new AI products, as well as initiatives and skills training for the United Kingdom at an exclusive "Gemini for the United Kingdom" event held at Google DeepMind's London headquarters. The event reinforced Google Cloud's long-term dedication to the UK, highlighted by its $1 billion investment in a new data centre, opening this year, alongside ongoing initiatives to empower the nation's AI development.

Moderated by British broadcaster Tina Daheley, the panel event offered a rare opportunity to hear from industry leaders, including Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, who outlined his vision for the future of AI innovation in the UK, and Google DeepMind CEO Sir Demis Hassabis. They were joined by BT Group Chief Executive Allison Kirkby and WPP CEO Mark Read CBE, who discussed the practical applications and transformative power of AI within their organisations and industries.

"Our deep relationship with Google DeepMind enables us to bring some of the world's most cutting-edge AI technology to our cloud customers, which range from startups to large enterprises," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. "We're uniquely able to provide secure, flexible infrastructure; leading AI models; and an open developer platform that integrates with existing IT investments while maintaining security, privacy, and access controls, to organisations in the UK and around the world."

"I'm really proud of our UK roots, having founded Google DeepMind in London, in large part due to the amazing talent and academic institutions based here," said Google DeepMind CEO and Co-founder, Demis Hassabis. "As the engine room for Google, through our Gemini models we continue to contribute to the thriving UK tech sector by helping developers and businesses across the UK and worldwide drive breakthroughs with the help of AI."

Chirp 3 Availability on Vertex AI
Timed with today's event, Google Cloud announced that Chirp 3, Google's groundbreaking audio generation model, is joining Gemini, Imagen, and Veo on Vertex AI. Starting next week, HD Voices, powered by Chirp 3, will be generally available in 31 languages, offering 248 distinct voices with eight speaker options. Chirp 3 on Vertex AI delivers detailed speech functionality that captures the nuances of human intonation, making conversations more engaging and immersive. This is ideal for a variety of customer use cases, including voice annotating, real-time meeting transcription, audiobooks, and sentiment collection from customer calls.

Expanded UK Data Residency for Google Agentspace
Previously, Google Cloud announced that UK organisations spanning all industries – including the public sector – have the option to store their data at-rest and conduct machine learning processing using Google's cutting-edge large language model, Gemini 1.5 Flash, entirely within the UK.

Today, Google Cloud announced it is expanding its UK data residency commitment to include Google Agentspace, with availability coming in Q2. Agentspace unlocks enterprise expertise for employees with agents that bring together Gemini's advanced reasoning, Google-quality search, and enterprise data, regardless of where it's hosted.

Agentspace helps employees be more creative and productive. It includes NotebookLM Enterprise which helps employees quickly synthesise large quantities of information to uncover new insights. It also includes a single, company-branded multimodal search agent that employees can use to answer complex questions and take specific actions based on an organization's proprietary information, including unstructured data like documents and information stored third-party applications. Finally, Agentspace allows for the creation of custom AI agents that apply generative AI contextually, empowering employees from any department to conduct deep research, create content, and automate repetitive processes.

Expanded AI Skilling Initiatives in the UK
As AI reshapes industries, equipping the British population with the knowledge and skills to use this new technology is paramount. Over the past decade, Google has trained more than one million people, including students, educators, small business owners, and developers, across more than 500 locations in the UK, underscoring its commitment to making digital skills accessible to all. And, for nearly two years, Google has provided training in AI fundamentals through Google Digital Garage free of charge.

Today, building on this progress, Google Cloud announced an expansion of its AI skilling initiatives in the UK, offering new training and certification programs for developers, students, professionals, and higher education institutions – all at no cost. These initiatives align with Google Cloud's broader commitment to fostering AI literacy and preparing the workforce for the future. By providing accessible and high-quality training resources via its on-demand learning platform, Google Cloud Skills Boost, Google Cloud aims to bridge the skills gap and empower individuals to pursue rewarding careers in cloud.

Key highlights of the expanded AI skilling initiatives in the UK include:

• For developers: Developers can take advantage of 35 free Skills Boost credits per month for advanced training and credentials on Google Cloud Skills Boost, specifically focused on how to use generative AI in their work. For example, individuals can learn how to build and modernise applications with generative AI and integrate generative AI into their data workflows.
• For higher education institutions & workforce programs: Faculty and leaders can help build technical skills among their students through the cohort-based Google Career Launchpad program. Students gain no-cost access to entry-level Google Cloud Certificates in cybersecurity and data analytics, and generative AI courses with skill badge credentials.
• For students & professionals: Individuals can access Google Cloud's flagship AI courses on YouTube, covering introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Google Cloud also recently launched three new standalone courses on the Google Cloud Skills Boost learning platform, available to everyone in the UK, to address critical AI topics: "Introduction to Security in the World of AI," "Boost Productivity with Gemini in BigQuery," and "Build generative AI Agents with Vertex AI and Flutter."

New Benefits for AI Startups in the UK
With more than 60% of UK generative AI startups already working with Google Cloud, and following the recently launched 2025 Google for Startups Accelerator programme -- AI first UK -- Google Cloud continues its deep commitment to the nation's startup ecosystem.

As part of the "Gemini for UK" event, Google Cloud today announced up to £280,000 in cloud credits for UK based AI startups, along with dedicated technical resources and training. Startups will gain access to Google Cloud's global community of experts, investors, partners, and other startups unlocking opportunities to grow and scale their businesses. Additionally, startups in the UK can upskill their teams with training and workshops and 1:1 mentorships as they scale – including Skills Boost training courses and labs.

Sofia Fenichell, founder and CEO of StudyHall.AI, a UK-based agentic tutor platform for schools and homes, said: "Google Cloud has been instrumental in our rapid growth and innovation. Cloud credits have empowered us to scale our infrastructure faster and process books at unprecedented speeds. Google Cloud's powerful infrastructure has been the key to efficiently training our language models and building a scalable workforce of agentic teaching agents. Expert access and training have also been critical for accelerating our AI development. Moreover, Google Cloud's global reach and dedication to safety has enabled StudyHall to pioneer child-safe AI guardrails."

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated, and optimised AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organisations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.

SOURCE Google Cloud