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Vertex AI Is Now Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform: Name Changes, What Changed, and a Migration Checklist

  • Mohit
  • 17 Oct, 2026
  • Updated 27 Oct, 2026
Vertex AI Is Now Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform: Name Changes, What Changed, and a Migration Checklist

If you open the Google Cloud console today and search for Vertex AI, you’ll land somewhere new: Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. On April 22, 2026, Google introduced Agent Platform as “the evolution of Vertex AI” and renamed dozens of products in the process: Agent Engine became Agent Runtime, Vertex AI Search became Agent Search, Vertex AI Studio became Agent Studio, and so on.

For teams with production workloads, documentation, and training material built around Vertex AI, the question isn’t “what’s the new name?” so much as “what do I actually have to change?” This guide answers both: the complete name mapping, what changed and what didn’t, the 2026 changes that do require work, and a migration checklist.

If your organization licenses Gemini for employees through Google Workspace, the end-user side is covered in our Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform introduction. This post focuses on the Google Cloud platform side.

Table of contents

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What Happened: Vertex AI Renamed to Agent Platform

Vertex AI launched in May 2021, combining AutoML and the legacy AI Platform into one machine learning service. Over the following years it added generative AI, Model Garden, Vertex AI Search and Conversation, and Agent Builder.

On April 22, 2026, at Google Cloud Next, Google introduced Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (a platform to build, scale, govern, and optimize agents) and made two commitments that matter for planning:

  1. Agent Platform combines Vertex AI’s model selection, model building, and agent building with new features for agent integration, DevOps, orchestration, and security.
  2. All Vertex AI services and roadmap evolutions will be delivered exclusively through Agent Platform, not as a standalone Vertex AI service.

In short: Vertex AI didn’t disappear, it became one part of a larger platform. New features will only arrive under the Agent Platform name.


Gemini Enterprise vs. Agent Platform: Two Products, One Name Family

The rebrand created two products with similar names. Keep them straight:

Gemini EnterpriseGemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Who uses itEmployeesDevelopers, data scientists, platform teams
What it isThe AI app: chat, enterprise search, Deep Research, notebooks, agentsThe platform to build, deploy, govern, and optimize models and agents
FormerlyGoogle Agentspace (and parts of Vertex AI Search)Vertex AI
BillingPer-user editions (Business, Standard, Plus, Frontline) or pay-as-you-goUsage-based Google Cloud billing
Where it livesGemini Enterprise app and WorkspaceGoogle Cloud console

Agents you build on Agent Platform can be published to employees through the Gemini Enterprise app, which is why the two are often discussed together.


The Name-Change Table

Key Vertex AI product names and their new Agent Platform names

Google’s official name-change list is long. These are the entries most teams will meet:

Platform and generative AI

Old nameNew name
Vertex AI / Vertex AI PlatformGemini Enterprise Agent Platform (short: Agent Platform)
Generative AI on Vertex AIGenerative AI on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Vertex AI APIGemini Enterprise Agent Platform API
Vertex AI StudioAgent Studio on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Vertex AI Studio App BuilderApp Builder in Agent Studio
Vertex AI Media StudioAgent Media Studio
Vertex AI Model GardenGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Model Garden
Gemini / Imagen / Veo on Vertex AI[Model name] on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Claude / Llama / DeepSeek on Vertex AI[Model name], available on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Gemini Live API on Vertex AIGemini Live API on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Prompt management in Vertex AIPrompt management in Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Gen AI evaluation service on Vertex AIGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Evals

Agents, search, and retrieval

Old nameNew name
Vertex AI Agent EngineAgent Runtime on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Agent Engine SessionsGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Sessions
Agent Engine Memory BankGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Memory Bank
Agent Engine Code ExecutionGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Code Execution
Vertex AI SearchAgent Search on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Vertex AI Search for IndustryAgent Search for Industry
Vertex AI Search for CommerceAI Commerce Search on Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience
Vertex AI ConversationAgent Conversation
Vertex AI Vector SearchVector Search on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Vertex AI Vector Search 2.0Agent Retrieval
RAG EngineRAG Engine (unchanged)

Machine learning and MLOps

Old nameNew name
Vertex AI TrainingGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Managed Training
Vertex AI Serverless TrainingServerless Training
Vertex AI Training ClustersManaged Training Clusters
Vertex AI PipelinesGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Pipelines
Vertex AI EndpointsGemini Enterprise Agent Platform Endpoints
Vertex AI Batch / Online InferenceBatch Inference / Online Inference on Agent Platform
Vertex AI Workbench / Colab EnterpriseWorkbench / Colab Enterprise on Agent Platform
Vertex AI Feature StoreFeature Store on Agent Platform
Vertex AI Model RegistryModel Registry on Agent Platform
Vertex AI Model MonitoringModel Monitoring on Agent Platform
Vertex AI ExperimentsExperiments on Agent Platform
Vertex AI AutoMLAutoML on Agent Platform
Vertex AI in FirebaseGemini Enterprise Agent Platform in Firebase
Vertex AI on GDCGemini Enterprise Agent Platform on Google Distributed Cloud

The pattern is simple: most products swap “Vertex AI” for “Agent Platform,” and a handful of high-profile ones get new names (Agent Studio, Agent Runtime, Agent Search, Agent Retrieval, Managed Training, Evals).


What Changed in the Console

The Agent Platform console is organized around the agent lifecycle:

SectionWhat’s in it
BuildAgent Development Kit (ADK), Agent Studio, Agent Garden templates, Model Garden, RAG Engine, Vector Search, Managed Agents API
ScaleAgent Runtime, Sessions, Memory Bank, Code Execution
GovernAgent Registry, Agent Identity, Agent Gateway, governance policies, AI threat and vulnerability scanning
OptimizeAgent evaluation, simulation, observability, prompt optimization

Model building, training, pipelines, and endpoints are grouped under Models. Searching for “Vertex AI” in the console redirects to Agent Platform.


What Didn’t Change

For most existing workloads, the rename was a branding change:

  • Your resources keep working. Models, endpoints, pipelines, and deployed agents weren’t recreated.
  • The core API service is still aiplatform.googleapis.com: the display name changed to “Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform API.” Projects that already have it enabled don’t need to enable anything new for existing workloads.
  • Model Garden and model access carried over, now with more than 200 models.
  • RAG Engine kept its name.

New governance features may prompt you to enable additional APIs the first time you use them (for example, for Agent Registry and Model Armor).


The Changes That Do Need Work

The rename was painless. Several other changes in 2026 weren’t. Check each one against your workloads.

1. Python SDK 2.0.1 is a breaking change

On September 18, 2026, the Agent Platform SDK for Python 2.0.1 moved generative AI modules to the Google Gen AI SDK and split the agent surface out of google-cloud-aiplatform into its own package. Google calls it a breaking change and published a migration guide.

What to do: pin your current SDK version in requirements.txt, read the migration guide, and upgrade in a test environment before production.

2. Model retirements

  • Gemini 2.0 Flash and 2.0 Flash-Lite were discontinued on June 1, 2026, including Provisioned Throughput.
  • Preview endpoints for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, 2.5 Flash, and 3.1 Flash-Lite were retired on July 9, 2026.
  • Sixteen open model endpoints, including deepseek-v3.2-maas, glm-5-maas, and qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-maas, were retired on October 21, 2026 (announced July 21). Calls to them no longer work.
  • Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite reached GA on July 21, 2026 with breaking changes to sampling, penalty, and turn-structure parameters.

What to do: search your code and configuration for hard-coded model IDs, move to current versions, and re-run your evaluation set after switching: new models can change output.

3. Agent Studio web apps created before July 1, 2026

A security fix for an SSRF issue in Agent Studio (July 20, 2026) required regenerating and redeploying web apps created before July 1, 2026. If your team published Agent Studio apps in the first half of 2026, confirm they were redeployed.

4. Agent Runtime billing changes

From September 1, 2026, Memory Bank embedding SKUs changed and session and Memory Bank compute started being metered on the Agent Platform compute SKU. Check your billing reports for new line items if you use Sessions or Memory Bank.


Migration Checklist

#TaskOwner
1Update internal docs, runbooks, and architecture diagrams to the new namesPlatform team
2Update training material and certification prep: exams now use the new names (see our exam guide)L&D / team leads
3Inventory SDK versions across repos; pin versionsDevelopers
4Plan the Python SDK 2.0.1 migration in a test environmentDevelopers
5Search for retired model IDs and preview endpoints; switch and re-evaluateDevelopers / ML
6Confirm Agent Studio apps created before July 1, 2026 were regeneratedApp owners
7Review billing for new Agent Runtime, Sessions, and Memory Bank SKUsFinOps
8Update monitoring dashboards and alert names that reference “Vertex”SRE
9Review new governance features (Agent Identity, Registry, Gateway) for adoptionSecurity
10Update vendor contracts and procurement records to the new product namesProcurement

New Capabilities Worth Adopting

The rebrand came with real new features. These are the ones most teams should look at first:

  • Agent Runtime: sub-second cold starts and long-running agents that can run for up to 7 days, with revisions and traffic splitting for canary deployments (preview).
  • Agent Identity: a native IAM identity type for agents, with least-privilege permissions and non-repudiable audit; the Agent Identity API is in Preview.
  • Agent Registry: one catalog of agents, tools, and MCP servers across your organization, to spot agent sprawl.
  • Agent Gateway: a policy enforcement point for agent traffic with Model Armor protection against prompt injection, tool poisoning, and data leakage.
  • Agent evaluation and observability: online monitors for drift in production, simulation with synthetic users, and end-to-end tracing.
  • Agent Studio: a low-code visual builder whose logic can be exported to ADK for full-code development.

Conclusion

The move from Vertex AI to Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform is mostly a new name and a bigger scope: your projects, endpoints, and models kept working, and the core API is the same service. What needs attention are the changes that arrived alongside the rebrand: the Python SDK 2.0.1 split, model retirements, the Agent Studio security fix, and new billing SKUs.

Update your documentation and training first, then work through the code and billing items. And if your users access agents through Gemini Enterprise and Google Workspace, make sure the platform team and the Workspace admins share one naming guide so support tickets stop asking where Vertex AI went.


Official Google documentation:

Related reading:

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Vertex AI discontinued?
Vertex AI wasn't shut down; it was renamed and expanded. On April 22, 2026 Google introduced Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform as the evolution of Vertex AI, and said all Vertex AI services and roadmap evolutions will be delivered exclusively through Agent Platform. Existing Vertex AI capabilities such as Model Garden, training, pipelines, and endpoints continue under new names.
What is Vertex AI Agent Engine called now?
Vertex AI Agent Engine is now Agent Runtime on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Its Sessions, Memory Bank, and Code Execution features are now called Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform Sessions, Memory Bank, and Code Execution.
What is Vertex AI Search called now?
Vertex AI Search is now Agent Search on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Vertex AI Search for Commerce became AI Commerce Search on Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, Vertex AI Vector Search is Vector Search on Agent Platform, and Vector Search 2.0 is now Agent Retrieval.
Do I need to change my code after the Vertex AI rename?
The rename itself didn't force code changes, but other changes in 2026 may. The Agent Platform SDK for Python 2.0.1 (September 18, 2026) moved generative AI modules to the Google Gen AI SDK and split agent features into a separate package, which is a breaking change. Several older Gemini model versions and preview endpoints were also retired. Pin SDK versions and follow Google's migration guide.
What's the difference between Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform?
Gemini Enterprise is the application employees use: chat, enterprise search, Deep Research, notebooks, and agents, licensed per user. Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) is the Google Cloud platform developers use to build, deploy, govern, and optimize models and agents, billed by usage. Agents built on Agent Platform can be delivered to employees through the Gemini Enterprise app.