Google Cloud Summit London 2025: Practical AI deployment
As startups take hold of technologies such as AI agents, where is the sector headed?


The level to which firms are already using AI varies according to technological maturity, strategic focus, and on an industry by industry basis.
But what’s clear is that from the smallest to the largest businesses, the landscape is already shifting. We’ve spoken about AI agents on the podcast before – the promise of autonomous AI activity – but it’s only now that businesses are beginning to put more faith in these tools.
How is AI already being used to improve business processes? And what will progress in the sector look like?
In this episode, Rory speaks to Oliver Parker, VPAI GTM at Google Cloud, to explore some of the practical ways AI is changing organizations from startups to the enterprise.
Highlights
“So, I often say to clients, and it sounds a little cliche, yes, it's about use cases but it's about a use case with a business case. And that business case could be changing NPS scores, it could be around basket conversion if you're a retailer, it could be around citizenship, if you're in the public sector, and planning documents like I referenced earlier.”
“There's sort of two schools of thought, which is, everything looks leaner going forward, everyone's a 10x, I can be a 10x go to market leader, I can be a 10x engineer. So we don't need more of me, because I'm doing 10 more. So I think that's one school of thought, but I still think people are going to continue hiring.”
“I mean, obviously at an engineering level and developers, you're looking for very strong backgrounds and engineering development, but also people that have used and use a lot of these tools on a day to day basis.”
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
Footnotes
- The UK government is teaming up with Google Cloud to kill public sector legacy tech
- Google Cloud announces new data residency flexibility for UK firms, accelerator for regional startups
- Enterprises are worried about agentic AI security risks – Gartner says the answer is just adding more AI agents
- How effective are AI agents?
- IT leaders are less AI-ready than they were a year ago, says Cisco report
Subscribe
- Subscribe to The IT Pro Podcast on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe to The IT Pro Podcast on Spotify
- Subscribe to the IT Pro newsletter
- Join us on LinkedIn

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.
In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.
-
Where next for data center cooling?
In-depth As data centers use more water to meet surging cooling needs, are viable alternatives waiting in the wings?
-
Ingram Micro cyber attack: IT distributor says system restoration underway
News Ingram Micro is gradually getting back on its feet after a recent cyber attack severely disrupted systems.
-
The evolution from robots to agents
Sponsored Podcast With the right adoption strategy, agentic AI can be a force multiplier for productivity
-
Podcast Transcript: Are reasoning models fundamentally flawed?
ITPro Podcast A report from Apple has cast significant doubts on the efficacy of reasoning models, going as far as to suggest that when a problem is too complex, they simply give up
-
Are reasoning models fundamentally flawed?
ITPro Podcast A report from Apple has cast significant doubts on the efficacy of reasoning models, going as far as to suggest that when a problem is too complex, they simply give up
-
‘A complete accuracy collapse’: Apple throws cold water on the potential of AI reasoning – and it's a huge blow for the likes of OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic
News Apple published a research paper on the effectiveness of AI 'reasoning' models - and it seriously rains on the parade of the world’s most prominent developers.
-
Dell Technologies World 2025: All in on AI
ITPro Podcast From the cloud to the edge, enterprise architecture for AI must be carefully considered
-
SAS Innovate 2025: Pursuing pragmatic AI
ITPro Podcast As CISA delivered an eleventh-hour reprieve for the CVE database, AWS reportedly began to pause some data center leases
-
Putting small language models under the microscope
ITPro Podcast The benefits of small language models are undeniable – but they're no silver bullet
-
Google Cloud is leaning on all its strengths to support enterprise AI
Analysis Google Cloud made a big statement at its annual conference last week, staking its claim as the go-to provider for enterprise AI adoption.