Qualcomm and Google Cloud have expanded their relationship to help automakers deliver enhanced in-car experiences through agentic AI.

The collaboration brings together Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent, enabled by Google’s Gemini models, with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon digital chassis products to help car makers build and deploy multimodal, hybrid edge-to-cloud AI agents.

As customer expectations for their vehicle experiences are rapidly evolving, the AI technology to meet them is advancing even faster. This presents an opportunity for automakers to differentiate themselves in and out of the vehicle.

Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent enables automakers to create multimodal agents rapidly. By integrating the agent with Snapdragon, car makers will have a robust set of tools to create and deliver intelligent, customisable AI experiences that move beyond simple commands to enhanced, conversational, personalised agents in and around the vehicle.

With the combination, automakers can also reduce system development times by leveraging an optimised reference architecture and prebuilt capabilities for essential use cases, such as conversational navigation, media and entertainment, and vehicle controls. Additionally, the tight integration between both helps automakers create branded and interactive experiences using Google’s Gemini and other models running on the edge and in the cloud. This benefits from a hybrid approach that orchestrates on-device and on-cloud inferencing for flexibility.

These tools are designed to evolve as Google’s Gemini models advance in agentic capabilities, ensuring automakers can benefit from Google’s ongoing investment in multimodal AI models. Automotive AI Agent (cloud.google.com/solutions/vertical-ai-agents) supports agentic AI experiences across Qualcomm’s automotive portfolio.

“AI will fundamentally redefine the car maker’s ability to provide experiences in and around the car, making it more intuitive, personalised and helpful for drivers and passengers,” said Shiv Venkataraman, vice president at Google Cloud (cloud.google.com). “Through our collaboration with Qualcomm, we are putting automakers firmly in the driver’s seat. This partnership delivers a secure, brand-owned platform that allows automakers to design advanced AI companions capable of multi-modal, multi-lingual and multi-intent capabilities. This is a clear example of how our joint innovation is accelerating the future of mobility.”

Google and Qualcomm have a long history of automotive innovation. The two companies’ collaboration began in 2016 with the first embedded Android experience powered by Snapdragon, laying the groundwork for in-car infotainment. The relationship has since expanded to include AI-enabled cockpit systems with integrated voice control and navigation, as well as efforts to scale Android Automotive OS updates across the industry.

“The automotive industry is on the verge of major transformation driven by breakthroughs in generative AI and software-defined vehicles,” said Nakul Duggal, group general manager at Qualcomm (www.qualcomm.com). “Our technology collaboration with Google Cloud marks a significant milestone in unlocking new possibilities for automakers, empowering them to create digitally advanced and personalised experiences for their customers. We are excited to pair our industry leadership in automotive technology to help the broad ecosystem bring new AI-driven experiences to the market faster and effectively.”