Google I/O 2026: Can the Tech Giant Reclaim Its AI Throne?

As Google prepares to open its annual developer conference, I/O, in Mountain View, California, the company finds itself in an unfamiliar position: a clear third place in the foundation model race. Just a year ago, at I/O 2025, the landscape looked vastly different. Google was riding high on the launch of Gemini 2.5 Pro, and distinguishing among top-tier large language models often felt like a subjective exercise. But the AI landscape evolves rapidly, and today, reputation hinges largely on coding capabilities. For months, Google's coding tools have been outgunned by Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex — so much so that some engineers at DeepMind, Google's AI division, have reportedly been allowed to use Claude to avoid falling further behind.

While the company’s coding struggles are front and center, Google still shines in other areas, particularly AI for science. Here are the two key areas to watch at this year’s I/O.

The Coding Comeback Attempt

Google is taking its AI coding crisis seriously. According to reporting from The Information, a new AI coding team has been formed at DeepMind. The Los Angeles Times also reported that John Jumper — who shared a 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry with DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis for their work on AlphaFold — is lending his talents to the effort. It would be surprising if we do not see a major new coding release at I/O, perhaps an update to the company’s Antigravity agentic coding platform.

Still, expectations should be tempered. Googlers have access to internal models and products that are substantially ahead of those released to the public, yet they were reportedly fighting over access to Claude Code just last month. Unless the company has made astonishing progress since then, it is unlikely to reclaim the coding frontier in the span of two days.

Science and Health: A Different Kind of Leadership

If coding is Google DeepMind’s weakness, science is its conspicuous strength. It remains the only frontier AI company to have earned a Nobel Prize. As large language models increasingly dominate the AI-for-science landscape, Google has only solidified its lead. Last year, the company released several scientific AI tools, including the AI co-scientist, which formulates hypotheses and research plans in response to user questions — described as an “oracle” by one Stanford scientist — and AlphaEvolve, a system that pushes the boundaries of evolutionary biology. These tools demonstrate that even if Google is third in coding, it remains first in applying AI to fundamental scientific discovery.

Beyond pure science, health applications are a natural extension. The same underlying models that power scientific breakthroughs can be adapted to drug discovery, protein design, and personalized medicine. With DeepMind’s track record, we can expect announcements that bridge AI and healthcare, perhaps new partnerships or platforms that leverage AlphaFold’s capabilities for real-world medical challenges.

What to Watch For

Beyond the two highlighted areas, Google is likely to showcase updates to its core AI models, new hardware integrations, and consumer-facing AI features. But the narrative this year is clear: Can Google climb back into the top tier of AI coding while simultaneously advancing the frontier of scientific AI? The answers will begin to unfold at I/O.

For deeper insights, check out our previous coverage of AI coding challenges and AI in science.