Google has released a flurry of next-generation AI tools for Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Meet and Chat. Vice President of Product Johanna Voolich Wright says they’ll tighten up the AI race against Microsoft.
Generative AI text generation features will be available in Docs and Gmail, enabling users to create drafts, summaries and brainstorming texts based on simple instructions. They will also be able to produce imagery, audio and video to illustrate presentations in Slides.
Drafts
Google is rolling out a host of next generation AI tools for its productivity suite. These AI features will help workers and students in their daily tasks.
Specifically, these new tools will allow Gmail and Docs users to type a few words about the topic they want to write and a draft will be automatically generated for them. This is a very useful feature as it saves users from having to create the text themselves.
The company plans to roll out these generative AI experiences throughout the year for a select group of trusted testers. They will arrive in Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Meet and Chat.
Summaries
Google has launched a set of new AI tools that will help users to brainstorm, write and edit everything instantly on Gmail and Google Docs. The tools are available for testing and will be made public in the coming months.
One of the tools will allow users to summarize long email conversations and turn them into a neatly formatted summary, complete with names of people involved. This could save users a lot of time and effort.
Another tool will help users rewrite text by generating a draft. This feature can come in handy if you want to write a job post or other documents and need a good rewrite to improve its tone and style.
These tools are based on generative AI technology, which learns from past data to create content anew. The technology received much media attention last year after a company called OpenAI released a free writing tool named ChatGPT that could quickly produce human-quality written documents.
Brainstorming
In a bid to tighten its AI race ahead of Microsoft’s “Future of Work” event, Google is incorporating a flurry of new AI tools. They’ll arrive on Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Meet, and Chat.
Users will be able to draft, reply, summarize, and prioritize their Gmail, brainstorm, proofread, write, and rewrite in Docs, and bring their creative vision to life with auto-generated images and audio in Slides.
The most potentially useful of all the new AI-powered features are those for brainstorming and writing. Whether you’re an HR professional drafting a job description, or a parent drafting the invitation for your child’s pirate-themed birthday party, you can just type a topic into Workspace and a draft will be created for you instantly.
However, there’s a risk involved. Just like Bing’s Sydney, AI can sometimes get things wrong. It might missquote a quote or invent a whole new client. So you’ll have to give it some guidance at least.
Visual generation
Google is releasing next generation AI tools for its Workspace apps, including Gmail and Docs. It will enable users to generate text in response to prompts and create images, audio and video presentations.
Google says the new tool can help people draft topics instantly by simply giving it a command. It’ll spit out a draft, which can be edited and refined.
It will also help users with writing job descriptions or even a script for a video. The company is releasing the feature to its “trusted testers” for now.
In its press release, Google stressed that the AI should not replace human ingenuity and creativity. It’s okay for it to get things wrong, delight you with something offbeat and sometimes need guidance from humans.