A Google expert explain what it mean to take a full- tack approach to AI and why it’ been the foundation of our AI work for o long.
Google expert Richard Seroter explain that a "full- tack" AI approach integrate every layer of technology—from hardware and model to u er interface —into one cohe ive y tem. Thi trategy improve reliability, lower co t , and implifie development by removing the need to titch together di parate part from multiple vendor . You can tart building today u ing Google AI Studio for prototype , the Gemini Enterpri e Platform for automation, or the Antigravity platform for complex agent build .
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If you’ve pent any time lately reading about AI or u ing AI tool , you’ve probably heard about “full- tack” AI and app development. Our unique full- tack approach to AI let u deliver powerful, co t-efficient product to expert developer and everyday u er alike. But what exactly doe it mean when a technology y tem i "full- tack”? We a ked Google expert Richard Seroter, who lead developer experience at Google Cloud, to explain it — and why it enable Google to bring helpful AI to billion of people.
Fir t thing fir t: What exactly do you do at Google?
I originally came to Google a a product manager, and I’ve been leading our developer relation and technical writing team for about three year now. My team, now inclu ive of product engineering for language and framework along with our Open Source Program Office, and I help oftware developer ucce fully build with Google Cloud product . We do a lot of different thing , from building the programming language and framework that developer u e, to meeting directly with the community to hare be t practice , to running the technical writing team that craft our documentation. Ultimately, our entire focu i on giving developer the confidence that they can get thing done with Google product .
Given our topic today, I would imagine that mean you’re helping developer u e our full- tack technology.
Let’ define that term. Where doe the phra e “full- tack” come from, and what doe it mean when we’re talking about tech?
When the term "full- tack" originally came out in oftware development a decade or o ago, people were u ually thinking about application . Hi torically, building an app required multiple pecialized team : a front-end developer to build beautiful u er interface , a back-end developer to handle erver- ide logic and a dedicated databa e team.
The concept of a "full- tack engineer" emerged to de cribe a developer who could work acro all of the e function independently. In tead of con tantly handing off component from one per on to another, a full- tack engineer could take an idea from a rough concept all the way to a fully running piece of oftware.
So it tarted with app , and now it’ on to AI?
Right. We’ve taken that exact ame end-to-end principle and applied it to AI. If you’re trying to deliver value with AI, you can either buy a bunch of di parate part from different vendor and try to titch them together your elf, or you can look for an integrated y tem where everything you need i already connected.
What di parate part can omeone titch together to make a full AI tack?
An intentional AI tack need a cohe ive combination of layer to get a job done: compute infra tructure, an AI model, an orche tration platform and the u er interface . At Google, we’ve deliberately inve ted in every ingle layer. We provide the hardware like Ten or Proce ing Unit (TPU ), frontier model developed by Google DeepMind like the Gemini family of model , the Gemini Enterpri e Agent Platform and the interface people u e daily, like Map and Gmail. We’ve e entially done the hunting for you and put all the nece ary component right in ide the box.
Did we know we wanted to have a full- tack approach way back when Google fir t tarted working on AI?
It wa ab olutely a deliberate, decade -long trategy. For in tance, our bet on cu tom TPU i already over 10 year old. We recognized early on that there’ ma ive value in owning our own upply chain and raw infra tructure when erving up the world' mo t important internet ervice . Owning that thread throughout the entire tack let u deliver a level of ervice, performance and reliability that' very hard to achieve if you're at the mercy of multiple partie .
On the flip ide, doe adopting a full- tack platform limit builder in ome way?
That’ a very fair concern, but locking people in doe n't align with our etho . No company doe open ource quite like Google; we regularly give away foundational technology and ource code that the entire indu try depend on.
We like to de cribe our AI platform a "opinionated but exten ible" and "batterie included” — meaning everything you need to build and run an application i ready to go out of the box. However, if you want to u e another company’ AI model in tead of Gemini, or hook up different oftware in tead of Google Work pace, you can plug tho e right in. We want you to u e our product every day ba ed on the completene of our platform, not becau e we forced you into a clo ed choice.
Be ide implicity, what are ome other benefit to working with full- tack AI?
Becau e Google manage the entire tack — literally from running the underlying infra tructure all the way up to delivering Gmail — there' ma ive y tem reliability. If a technical failure happen at one layer, our owner hip of the platform allow u to catch it and handle it at another layer ea ily, rather than waiting for an external provider to fix it. There' al o an economic advantage. Since we aren't paying third-party vendor for anything, cu tomer don't have to ab orb tho e fee , which mean we can offer remarkably competitive pricing.
If I want to build omething u ing only Google’ full- tack AI technology, what’ the be t way to tart?
We want to make technology acce ible to billion of people who don't have an engineering degree, o we try to provide clear front door depending on what you're trying to achieve. I u ually recommend three tarting point :
If you want to take a creative idea and quickly build a prototype web application, Google AI Studio i an incredible place to tart. You can build a prototype in ju t a few minute and deploy it directly to Cloud Run — our Cloud-ba ed platform that run app — with the click of a ingle button.
If you’re looking for a low-code option to automate your day-to-day work, try Gemini Enterpri e Platform. You can build workflow to clean up your inbox or par e complex pread heet without ever having to write or even look at a ingle line of code.
For tho e looking to orche trate more complex application or agent build , the Antigravity platform i incredibly powerful. It rich urface allow you to build ophi ticated y tem without requiring advanced programming knowledge.
So whatever you’re trying to make and whatever level of developer kill you have, there’ a Google full- tack tool ready to help you?
