AI is far from being an independent, unmanned resource to most enterprises, and is mostly playing an assistive role in the lives of tech-savvy people in its current form. Google acknowledges this and is building on the assistive capabilities of AI through itsBard chatbot, and generative AI tools in Workspace products. The latter has been available as a limited beta, but we are now learning that testing is expanding to more users.
Googleannounced serious plansto bring AI utilities to Workspace products likeGoogle Docs, Sheets, and Slides in March this year. Later the same month, the companybegan testingwith a tiny group of initial testers — members of Google’s trusted tester program. Now, the company is expanding its tester pool tenfold, although only with users in the US.XDA notesthe company sent out invites to users in Ireland and the Netherlands too, but the test could be geo-limited for now.
The search engine company should expand testing to other regions, complete with support for other languages, sometime soon. A timeline hasn’t been cemented yet, but given the pace at which AI tools are evolving, we bet you’ll be composing your next document with AI help in no time, minus the copy-pasting from ChatGPT.
Once finished, all Google Workspace customers will have access to generative AI composition tools in Gmail, Slides, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and Chat. Usage should be pretty straightforward as well, with a button calledHelp me writeshowing up on Docs. A conversational tone should suffice for most AI prompts to flesh out full documents from a one-liner, or to rewrite existing sections of text. You could also solicit assistance for proofreading and crafting creative responses using theI’m feeling luckybutton, much like on Search. On other products like Gmail, AI could come in handy, generating executive summaries for email threads, while on Meet, you could summon the minutes of the meeting with just a quick prompt.
All things considered, AI is the talk of tech town, and we should learn Google’s plans for Bard and AI in general atGoogle I/Olater this week. Hopefully, a broader direction for AI’s involvement in Workspace tools will also be outlined at the event. We will fill you in on all the details as they unfold.
