Google updates Workspace to make AI your new office intern

At Google Cloud Next this week, the tech giant announced a bevy of new updates to Workspace, its subscription-based productivity suite aimed at professionals. As you might expect, the updates are heavy on AI, integrating new automation tools into various workflows — everything from drafting emails to organizing Google Sheets. Overall, the changes are clearly designed to give office workers a leg up in their pursuit of less busy work.

Here’s some of what is new:

Workspace Intelligence. Workspace Intelligence, a new AI system built into Google’s office suite, is designed to automate assistance across various tasks. The system draws on a user’s Workspace data, including their Gmail, Calendar, Chat, and Drive (Docs, Slides, and Sheets). Google has given users administrative control over what the AI system can see and access. Users can disable Workspace Intelligence’s access to particular data sources at any time. The tradeoff: The more data the system has access to, the more it’s able to assist in those particular areas.

Build and fill out Google Sheets with Gemini. A number of new features allow users to both build and fill out Google Sheets, the company’s spreadsheet tool. Users can construct sheets by prompting Gemini to construct them. Prompts can include things like formatting and data retrieval, allowing Google’s AI system to do much of the work a human would’ve previously needed to do. At the same time, Gemini also helps with data entry, automatically filling out Sheets with “prompt-based” filling. Google claims that its new feature allows users to populate the spreadsheets “9x faster” than manual entry, because the system is designed to infer what you’re going to enter. Another new Sheets feature allows users to convert unstructured data into organized tables.

AI writing capabilities. Google has also brought new new AI writing tools to Google Docs. Users can now use Gemini to “generate, write, and refine” documents. The feature is powered by the company’s Workspace Intelligence system, which draws on data from a user’s Drive, Chat, and Gmail archives, as well as the internet, to assist with editorial tasks. Users merely prompt Gemini to help them write or edit their documents. Users can prompt Gemini to “help me write” or ask it to “match” their writing style so that it can effectively mimic their voice.

Realizing that enterprise customers are where the money is, tech companies are racing to deploy the most convenient and efficient office tools — applications that can make the average worker’s life a matter of degrees easier. Google has a certain advantage; its office products are already deeply embedded in workplaces worldwide, giving it a built-in audience for these AI upgrades. But Microsoft, Apple, and a growing field of startups are all competing for the same turf.