Google Races Apple With Agentic AI on New Pixel 11

Google just launched its most AI-forward phone lineup yet, and the timing puts the company in a genuinely strange competitive position: showcasing agentic AI capabilities weeks before those same underlying capabilities arrive on Apple's iPhone. Alphabet unveiled the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, putting its most agentic version of Gemini yet at the center of the devices, according to CNBC's reporting on the launch, a follow-up to our earlier coverage of Google's broader AI-first Pixel strategy.

Google devices chief Rick Osterloh described Gemini Intelligence as "a totally new way to interact with a computer," telling CNBC that agentic capabilities let users "not only find out information but to get things done." With Gemini, U.S.-based users can order groceries, book rides, or get coffee directly through the phone, and Gemini can even call businesses on a user's behalf to make table reservations or appointments, according to TechCrunch's reporting on the feature set.

What makes this launch genuinely notable is the awkward competitive dynamic it creates. Apple's own Siri overhaul, announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, is being built on Google's Gemini models and targets much of the same territory Pixel 11 is showcasing now, tapping into personal data, interpreting what's on screen, and carrying out tasks across different apps, according to CNBC's reporting. That means Google is essentially previewing capabilities on its own hardware that will soon power one of its largest AI customers' flagship product.

Osterloh pushed back when CNBC asked directly whether Pixel gives Google an early chance to showcase these capabilities before they reach iPhones. "I think obviously Pixel and iPhone are going in very different directions," he said, pointing to features including scam detection and Rambler voice transcription as things "unique to Android and Gemini Intelligence."

The launch comes with a genuine pricing headwind Google was candid about. The Pixel 11 series starts at 256GB of storage, up from 128GB previously, with the increase partly reflecting a shortage of RAM and flash memory components affecting the entire consumer electronics industry. "What's happening in the near term, I think, is everyone's needing to raise their prices," Osterloh said. "We've also discussed that we will need to raise ours, like all the other industry players," according to Yahoo Finance's reporting on the comments, a cost pressure connected to the broader chip supply constraints we've tracked in our coverage of Lumilens' $900 million raise targeting AI infrastructure bottlenecks.

Osterloh acknowledged directly that AI isn't yet the top reason people upgrade their phones, though he said it has climbed sharply in importance among consumers in recent years, a candid admission that the agentic AI pitch is still a work in progress at winning over mainstream buyers.

This launch is worth understanding for any business evaluating enterprise mobile strategy or building products on Google's AI ecosystem specifically. Google's willingness to preview capabilities that will soon empower Apple's competing product suggests the company sees broader AI adoption across the entire consumer market as more strategically valuable than any single competitive hardware advantage.

For businesses in retail, hospitality, or services that could be contacted directly by agentic AI systems booking on a customer's behalf, this shift is worth preparing for operationally, since AI agents making calls and reservations autonomously introduces new considerations for how businesses handle inbound bookings and requests.

Google launched its Pixel 11 lineup with its most agentic version of Gemini yet, letting users order groceries, book rides, and have AI call businesses directly on their behalf, weeks before Apple ships its own Gemini-powered Siri overhaul on iPhone. Google's devices chief maintained Pixel and iPhone are headed in different directions despite both being built on similar underlying Gemini capabilities. The launch arrives alongside genuine memory chip shortages pushing prices higher across the entire smartphone industry, with Google confirming it will need to raise Pixel prices as a result.