Oct 8 (Reuters) - Alphabet's ‌Google Cloud on ​Thursday ​introduced the Gemini agent, a single AI agent for work that can answer questions, ‌handle tasks, create content and write code.

The move ⁠comes as tech companies race to sell AI that can work ‌autonomously.

The announcement comes after ‌OpenAI's September launch of always-on agents called dots that chase user goals across apps on their own. ​Earlier last month, Meta released Muse, a personal AI agent that can shop, book travel, send emails ⁠and make payments for users.

Alphabet shares were up marginally in early trading.

Here ​are more details:

• The Gemini agent plans the work, uses tools, connects to a company's ​business systems and returns finished ‌work in documents, email and developer environments, Google said.

• The agent works directly inside ⁠Google Workspace apps including Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Calendar, and can also be used through Microsoft 365 and Slack.

• It ⁠picks the best model for each task, currently running on Google's ​Gemini models and Anthropic's Claude models, with other models to be added later.

• Users can create "coworker agents" that act as team ‌members, with their own email address and access only to the information they ‌are given.

• Versions built for financial services and legal ⁠work are now in ‌preview, and versions for ​government, healthcare and retail are coming soon.

(Reporting by Anzar Mehraj in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika ‌Syamnath)

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