Google Workspace apps will soon include AI features. What it means

Google plans to start rolling out some features in the next few weeks, starting with writing features in Google Docs and Gmail to select enterprise customers, He said. It’s unclear when other features might become available.

According to the market research company Gartner, Google is far behind Microsoft Office in terms of tools for increasing workplace productivity. Open AI made a splash last year after releasing ChatGPT’s text-based generative AI tool, which Microsoft integrated into its Bing search engine this year. Since then, employees have been experimenting with whether ChatGPT can help with work tasks. However, experts advise people to be careful when using the technology for work, as generative AI can produce content that is factually incorrect, nonsensical, similar or nearly identical to an unknown source, or, in the case of images, visibly visible. distorted.

To be sure, Google has been integrating artificial intelligence into its software for years, just like Gmail’s predictive text element. However, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian described the latest AI announcements as the next phase of development in which humans are supported by AI collaborators. Google said it collects interaction data entered and received by customers to improve its technology for initial test customers.

Here are some ways workers can use the new Workspace AI integrations based on information provided by Google.

Writing documents and emails

Google’s generative AI will be able to create a full outline based on a topic or points for workers who need help finding words on the page, whether in an email or a Google Doc.

A marketing manager might ask a techie to create a sales training plan for the next campaign, and Google Docs can create one from scratch, for example. Workers can highlight parts of text and ask Google’s artificial intelligence to transcribe them in a specific tone. For example, they can use commands like “Make it more formal” or “Make this whimsical.” If you don’t like the first result, the “view another” button is expected to produce another result. And if you don’t know what tone you want to use, click “I’m lucky” and Google will pick one.

The AI ​​will be able to summarize email threads with a prompt such as “Access this email conversation.” Or you can create a summary based on multiple Google Docs or emails. Google expects to allow users to prioritize emails.

Create images and presentations quickly

Workers will soon be able to use artificial intelligence capabilities to shorten the time it takes to create a presentation in Google Slides.

Users are expected to be able to ask the app, a competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint, to create images for a given slide. Google also expects workers to be able to create AI-generated audio or video to embed in their slides, but did not provide further details.

Automatic filling of some tables

When it comes to spreadsheets, workers need to use artificial intelligence to fill them out faster or understand their data.

In Sheets, Google’s spreadsheet application, AI is expected to help generate formulas, provide analytics and insights, and categorize data. For example, in a spreadsheet that contains a column for personalized messages to customers, AI can automatically fill in the blanks for each customer with a single prompt.

Make chats and meetings more efficient

Google also wants to help employees to make their communication with their peers more effective and efficient.

In Google Meet, workers will be able to automatically track meeting notes, create checklists for actions, and summarize the meeting. The features are additions to statements the company made last year when it announced Meet transcripts and summaries of conversations on its Spaces group chat platform.

Google also expects to integrate artificial intelligence into Google Chat to allow workers to automate certain workflows. He could not share more about the future feature.