CHICAGO, August 6, 2026 — Go2MarketEdge attendees didn’t need a Google search or predictions from the tech giant’s Gemini agent to learn what it’s betting will be next in AI.
"We believe we'll have humanoids working alongside us at the office, and it's not too far away,” said Joana Carrasqueira, product & special product lead for Google DeepMind, the company’s AI research lab. “It's something that may come soon rather than later —many providers here in California are already shipping and providing services with robots."
She cited a venture that launched about three weeks ago in San Francisco as a virtual housekeeper: “For $30, a robot goes to your home to clean.
"Models are evolving in this direction,” Carrasqueira continued. “The action also means drones for food delivery, small packages, things like that.”
Already, she said, “what we have been testing very heavily is drone delivery for food companies, and we have we have been experimenting with what is the next stage of food delivery, and that's the prototype that we have right now.” She did not reveal how that next-generation model might function.
Carrasqueira addressed G2ME attendees during their visit to Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters, one of three stops in an immersion tour of major players in the famed tech center. Also visited were the headquarters of Plug and Play, a major investor and incubator of digital startups, and Stanford University, where executives of Amazon and the university’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence program addressed the conference participants.
The presenters shared their organization’s approach to innovation and where they see technology heading.
The 2.5-day conference is presented by IFMA The Food Away from Home Association.
Google’s Carrasqueira was specific about how her organization expects AI to evolve.
"We believe the future of AI is going to be powered by smaller models that can be tailored and customized for your specific use cases because every single industry is different,” she stated, using the term “models” for what non-techies might call AI agents like ChatGPT or Gemini.
She proceeded to explain that those models will likely be combined with other agents to address the various steps in a business process.
“This is something that is really important for your industry,” Carrasqueira told the roomful of food-away-from-home executives. "They don't have to all be from the same provider. Each model can be tailored to a different workflow.”