Conference intelligence

Google Cloud Next 2026 — Insights

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966 of 1,083 sessions at Google Cloud Next 2026 are about AI — 89% of the whole conference. Security is the biggest single theme. The 117 non-AI sessions are where the rest of the cloud story holds out.

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1,083
Total sessions
Across all formats — keynotes, breakouts, workshops, and labs.
89% AI
Share of the conference
966 AI · 117 not AI
For every non-AI session, there are roughly 8 AI ones.
Security
Largest theme
231 sessions
Security runs through both AI and non-AI content — it's the one theme that shows up everywhere.
Leaders
Largest audience
286 sessions
Slightly ahead of Developers (238 sessions) — the conference leans executive.
427
Non-Google companies represented
Most appear once. A handful show up 10+ times and are part of the conference narrative.
Featured analysis

MCP at Google Cloud Next: 2025 → 2026

A focused comparison of how MCP, protocol language, A2A, and “skills” shifted from the 2025 catalog to 2026.

Read the LinkedIn discussion →
Preview image for the LinkedIn post comparing MCP-related Google Cloud Next 2025 and 2026 sessions

How full the conference is getting

What the seat signals say
Where sessions are full

The shape of the conference

Each band flows left to right: total sessions → AI vs Not AI → theme → audience. Click any segment to explore that slice.

Google Cloud Next 2026 Sankey diagram
What stands out
  • 89.2% of the entire catalog is AI — 966 of 1083 sessions.
  • Security is the most common theme at 231 sessions, spanning both AI and non-AI content.
  • Inside AI, Security leads at 192 sessions — 1 in 5 AI sessions is about security; guardrails, IAM, and threat detection are baked into the AI stack.
  • Outside AI, Security takes the top spot with 39 sessions.
  • 286 sessions target Leaders, 238 target Developers — the conference tilts toward the buyer side.
  • 145 sessions target infrastructure and ops engineers, 104 target data practitioners. The platform comes before the pipeline.
  • The major consulting firms together account for 39 sessions — more than any single non-Google company on the list.
Quick pivots

How the agenda breaks down

Top themes
Top audiences
Top AI themes
Top Not AI themes

The words that keep showing up

Across all sessions
AI sessions only
Not AI sessions only

Top companies speaking

Non-Google companies
  • NVIDIA leads all non-Google companies with 17 sessions — a persistent presence throughout the program.
  • The major consulting firms (Accenture, McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, PwC, Cognizant, HCLTech) add up to 39 sessions combined — more than any individual non-Google company. A big slice of the conference is about enterprise adoption, with consultants as the delivery vehicle.
  • NVIDIA at #1 (17 sessions) makes the AI hardware dependency explicit — the software story at this conference runs on their chips.
  • Anthropic appears 10 times — Google's AI model investment earns a recurring stage presence.
  • Wiz shows up 11 times, all in Security — Google acquired Wiz for ~$32B, yet the catalog still lists them as an external company.
  • Shopify (9) and Snap (6) are consumer brands, not enterprise software companies — Google is using them as scale proof points for what Cloud infrastructure can handle.

Six cuts worth exploring