Google updates Workspace and hires AI for new office interns

At Google Cloud Next this week, the tech giant announced a series of new updates to Workspace, its subscription-based productivity suite for professionals. As you might expect, this update is AI-focused, integrating new automation tools into a variety of workflows, from email drafts to organizing Google Sheets. Overall, this change is clearly aimed at allowing office workers to pursue less busy work.

Some of the new features are listed below.

Workspace intelligence. Workspace Intelligence, a new AI system built into Google’s Office suite, is designed to automate assistance across a variety of tasks. The system leverages your workspace data, including Gmail, Calendar, Chat, and Drive (Documents, Slides, and Sheets). Google gives users administrative control over what their AI systems can see and access. Users can disable Workspace Intelligence’s access to specific data sources at any time. Trade-off: The more data a system can access, the more it can help in a particular area.

Create and fill out a Google Sheet using Gemini. A number of new features allow users to both create and fill in Google Sheets, the company’s spreadsheet tool. Users can create sheets by prompting Gemini to create a sheet. Prompts can include formatting, data retrieval, and more, allowing Google’s AI systems to do many of the tasks that previously required humans. At the same time, Gemini also assists with data entry, automatically filling in sheets on a “prompt-based” basis. Google claims the new feature will allow users to enter data into spreadsheets “9x faster” than manually, as the system is designed to guess what you’re trying to type. Another new spreadsheet feature allows users to transform unstructured data into organized tables.

AI writing capabilities. Google also introduced new AI writing tools to Google Docs. Users can now “generate, create, and improve” documents using Gemini. The feature is powered by the company’s Workspace Intelligence system, which uses data from your Drive, chats, Gmail archives, and the Internet to assist you with your editing efforts. Users simply invite Gemini to help them create or edit documents. Users can prompt Gemini to “help me write” or ask Gemini to “match” the user’s writing style so it can effectively imitate the user’s voice.

Recognizing that corporate customers are a gold mine, high-tech companies are competing to introduce the most convenient and efficient office tools: applications that make the average employee’s life somewhat easier. Google has certain advantages. The company’s office products are already deeply embedded in workplaces around the world, providing built-in users for these AI upgrades. But Microsoft, Apple, and the growing startup field are all competing for the same turf.