Proactive Agents – Kath Korevec, Google Labs
Dec 13, 2025 · 16:51
Kath Korevec, Director of Product at Google Labs, argues that AI coding agents must become proactive rather than reactive to truly reduce developer cognitive load. She introduces Jools, a proactive autonomous coding agent that observes workflows, personalizes responses, and intervenes at the right moment. Korevec details three levels of proactivity: level one auto-fixes issues during tasks; level two learns project context; level three connects agents across code, design, and data. She highlights features like memory, a critic agent for code quality, verification via Playwright, and a to-do bot. A demo shows Jools indexing a codebase and suggesting high-confidence tasks. Korevec ties this to her personal Halloween animatronic project, where she wished Jools handled debugging so she could focus on creative LED animations.
