Google updates Workspace to make AI your new office intern

Source: TechCrunch

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.

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 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 trade‑off: the more data the system has access to, the more it can assist in those particular areas.
Read the announcement

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.

• Sheet construction – Users can prompt Gemini to construct sheets, including formatting and data retrieval, letting the AI handle work that previously required manual effort.
• Prompt‑based filling – Gemini can automatically fill out Sheets, inferring what you intend to enter and populating the spreadsheet up to “9× faster” than manual entry.
• Unstructured data conversion – A feature lets users convert unstructured text into organized tables.

Automate data entry with Gemini
Paste and convert unformatted text into tables

AI Writing Capabilities

Google has introduced new AI writing tools to Google Docs. Users can now use Gemini to generate, write, and refine documents. Powered by Workspace Intelligence, the feature draws on data from a user’s Drive, Chat, Gmail archives, and the internet to assist with editorial tasks. Users simply prompt Gemini to “help me write” or ask it to “match” their writing style, enabling the AI to mimic their voice.

Learn more about Gemini in Docs

Market Context

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. However, Microsoft, Apple, and a growing field of startups are all competing for the same turf.

Reuters: Google puts AI agents at the heart of its enterprise push