An easy route to AI-enhanced productivity

How the integration of Google Gemini across Google Workspace turbo charges existing apps with AI power

Sponsored Feature There's no doubt that generative AI (GenAI) is a revolutionary technology which has the power to fundamentally change the way we all work.

And tech research outfit IDC points out that getting the implementation of AI, particularly GenAI, right will almost certainly deliver big rewards in terms of enhanced market share for businesses and improved operational efficiency for workers and consumers. A report published in June 2024 - AI Transformation Is Driving Digital Business -  warns that the disparity in AI capabilities and investment between leading and nascent organisations underscores a competitive advantage.

"Mastering AI is essential in the digital business era. Those that continue to make investments in AI technology and data systems will be positioned to capture significant market share," noted Craig Powers, research director, Worldwide Digital Business Strategies at IDC.

This power isn't something that is limited to data scientist boffins locked up in their lofty ivory towers. Nor is AI some abstract concept, but rather a collection of technologies that can now offer very real and tangible benefits to businesses of all kinds. New research from technology analyst group Quocirca (AI trends study 2024) shows that a whopping 70 per cent of respondents across the UK, France, Germany, and the US report that they are already using AI. And the AI laggards are not hanging about either: according to the poll, the remaining 30 per cent of organisations said that they will roll out AI within 12 months.

But while the IT industry may be engaging in overdrive over the tangible and transformative benefits of AI, it can be confusing and even overwhelming for organisations to know where and how they can best start to tap into these seemingly radical new technologies. To solve this issue Google has created Gemini for Google Workspace, designed to deliver cutting-edge, end-to-end generative AI functionality that lets organisations' teams create, connect, and collaborate more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

Google's most capable AI tool

The Gemini AI-powered assistant is integrated into all the familiar and established Google Workspace apps including Gmail, Docs, Sheets and more. Delivering what it describes as enterprise-grade security and privacy, Google bills Gemini for Google Workspace as a powerful collaborative partner that can act as a "coach, source of inspiration, and productivity booster" - all while ensuring every user and organisation has the ability to exert full control over their data.

A key advantage of Gemini comes from workflow integration which enables easy and intuitive transfer of insights and creations generated with Gemini AI directly into core Google Workspace apps. The platform has been engineered to deal with highly complex tasks says Google, and is able to quickly understand and respond to a diverse set of inputs — for the Gemini App this includes text, images and code, with support for over 35 different languages. It also stresses that Gemini includes enterprise-grade data protection, which means that organisations' submissions are not used to train models and are not reviewed by humans.

In terms of delivering real-world business benefits that enhance operational and commercial productivity, the versatility of Gemini looks impressive. Spanning the different apps in Google Workspace, the integration of Gemini can streamline and optimise a host of common business processes. From automating the creation of eye-catching presentations, to blog writing, helping with sales proposals, generating sales campaign plans and personalised messaging, Gemini powers up existing Google Workspace applications.

For example, looking at the HR function Gemini can optimise the entire hiring process. It can help build a job spec, promote it and find best candidates. Gemini AI can maximise the efficiency of this process by identifying the skills an organisation should be looking for in a candidate. It can create interview questions and rubrics for evaluation, create job descriptions and offer suggestions on how to promote the vacancy. In addition, the AI model can generate an image to go along with the post in Slides, while in Google Drive, it can find the top candidates from CV collection. After this Gemini can analyse top candidates in depth (via table in docs) and then write to the top candidate congratulating them based on the comparison sheet.

Usable AI for real world tasks

Simple and smart collaboration with Gemini can be performed in the side panel of apps Gmail, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, and Google Drive. Using the side panel, Gemini can help teams with summarising, analysing, and generating content based on insights gathered from emails, documents, and more – without needing to switch between applications or tabs. The use-case of a marketing team working on a content calendar for the next quarter makes a good example of the power of this feature. An organisation can, with just a few prompts, use the Gemini side panel to automatically create a table in Google Sheets that includes project owners, dates, statuses, and even descriptions of each project.

Specifically, in Google Docs and Gmail, teams can use Gemini for Google Workspace to help write and refine documents and emails. In Google Docs the user can just ask Gemini to draft a blog post or project plan. Also, in Google Docs they can use Proofread to check grammar and spelling or get stylistic suggestions. In Gmail users can easily draft emails with Gemini: for example, writing a customer outreach email based on a product announcement.

Google Sheets allows the use of Gemini for Google Workspace to organise and optimise the processing of spreadsheet data. As an example, Gemini can help with the organisation of projects or events, such as a task tracker or conference agenda – all the user has to do is enter a prompt describing what they want to organise. Gemini will then intelligently design and suggest a custom table with placeholder data that can be inserted in their spreadsheet. Gemini also makes manual spreadsheet text processing tasks much more efficient by automatically detecting incomplete column pairs and predicting remaining values. The AI model can even finish filling out feedback categorisation columns based on existing data.

Gemini's integration with Google Meet offers a host of features to optimise communication and collaboration. With Gemini for Google Workspace in Google Meet users can create custom background images of their own design by simply telling the AI model the scene desired behind them in meetings. They can then use the studio look feature to turn a low-quality image into studio quality by fixing issues caused by low light or low-quality webcams. There's also the option of using the studio lighting feature to simulate professional lighting in the video feed to deliver perfectly lighting in the meeting. Additionally studio sound can be used to improve the audio experience in Meet, restoring the user's original voice by recreating and balancing missing or distorted frequencies.

Moving through the Google Workspace app portfolio to Slides, Gemini can be used to create custom images. All that's needed is a prompt to describe the image required and Gemini will generate options that can be added to the slide.

Teams can also use translated captions to help overcome language barriers in multi-lingual meetings and make Meet video calls more inclusive and collaborative. The use of the Adaptive audio feature allows participants to join meetings with multiple laptops in the same room without dedicated conferencing hardware.

Accessibility and flexibility to foster widespread adoption

Given the compelling AI benefits offered by Gemini for Google Workspace, it is hardly surprising that it's enjoying rapid market adoption from a wide variety of international organisations seeking to optimise business process efficiency, boost creativity and turbo charge collaboration. Google points out that current users of Gemini for Google Workspace can be found across the whole gamut of business categories: from UN agencies to small businesses to some of the world's biggest enterprises.

Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, sums up the appeal of Google's AI platform: "Gemini for Google Workspace helps us save time on repetitive tasks, frees up developers for higher-value work, reduces our agency spending and enhances employee retention." As a relatively low cost and easily accessible way to harness the power for AI for personal and business productivity, it would be surprising if more organisations don't make the switch to Gemini for Google Workspace in the very near future.

You can get started putting Gemini to work for your organisation by clicking this link.

Sponsored by Google.