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# AI in February 2026: agents arrive and the models leap
- URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/ai-recap-february-2026-australia/
- Published: 2026-06-29T23:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-09T06:45:19.000Z
- Description: Claude 4.6, Gemini 3.1 Pro, Perplexity Computer, Notion Custom Agents — February was a wall of frontier models and the first serious agents.
- Author: Adam
- Tags: Editorial, Australia, Monthly Recap, #editorial, #news

**By Adam** · Part of our [monthly AI recap series](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/ai-updates-australia/), looking back at February 2026.

If January was about price, February was about capability. A wall of new frontier models landed, and the first genuinely useful agents arrived with them.

**The models jumped.** Anthropic shipped [Claude Opus 4.6](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-4-6?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) (with a million-token context beta and agent teams) on 5 February, then [Sonnet 4.6](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-sonnet-4-6?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) — the new free-tier default — on the 17th. Google released [Gemini 3.1 Pro](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-1-pro/?ref=theaidirectory.com.au), roughly doubling its predecessor's reasoning score.

**Agents got real.** Perplexity launched [Computer](https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-perplexity-computer?ref=theaidirectory.com.au), an agent that runs workflows for hours, and a [Model Council](https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-model-council?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) feature that runs one query through three frontier models at once. Notion shipped [Custom Agents](https://www.notion.com/releases/2026-02-24?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) in version 3.3 — multi-step autonomous workflows, free to try at first.

**Also worth knowing:** Google's Nano Banana 2 brought fast, high-quality image generation to the Gemini app and Lyria 3 added custom music tracks.

**What it meant for you:** the gap between "AI that answers" and "AI that acts" started closing. The tools you already paid for quietly got more capable — worth re-checking what your existing subscription could now do.

*Full month-by-month detail lives in our* [*AI Updates log*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/ai-updates-australia/)*. — Adam*