Google’s New Workspace Intelligence Is About to Be Your Ultimate AI Co-Worker

Some of the most popular work-focused apps of all time are about to become more intertwined than before, thanks to artificial intelligence. Google has announced Workspace Intelligence, a new semantic layer for its Google Workspace suite of products. The new capability enables Gemini-powered AI agents to understand and replicate the unique context of your workplace and job when you use products like Google Sheets and Google Docs. Yulie Kwon Kim, Google Workspace’s head of product, says that Workspace Intelligence is intended to emulate the institutional knowledge of a long-tenured employee, but for AI systems. “There are a lot of LLMs out there that are powerful and capable,” says Kim, “but they end up being generic. They don’t know your institutional history, how you like to format your professional voice and preferences.” The key to creating an actually-useful AI co-worker, says Kim, is to provide AI models with the “rich organizational context” found in a company’s documents, emails, presentations, and messages. Because Workspace Intelligence automatically scans your emails and messages, it can generate content that sounds as if it were written by you, and can transform its outputs to replicate your unique voice. With this context, Gemini will know to format a spreadsheet in Google Sheets the right way, for example, or know to never include exclamation points in your emails. Or maybe to include them all the time! With Workspace Intelligence, Kim says that conversations with Gemini will become more like running a “command center for your work,” enabling users to pull in data from sources including Google Drive, Gmail, and Sheets. Google says that the chat feature, now named “Ask Gemini in Chat,” will make it easier for workers to find files, schedule meetings with coworkers, and get recommendations for the first actions they should take after opening their laptop. In Sheets, Google’s web-based spreadsheet software, users can harness Workspace Intelligence to develop and edit spreadsheets based on data from Gmail or Google Drive. The tech has also enabled a new feature called Sheets Canvas, which enables Gemini to turn spreadsheets into dynamic mini-apps and dashboards. In Docs, Google’s cloud-based word processor, Workspace Intelligence can be used to add infographics to text documents, and to edit documents based on comments left by the user. To be sure, Google has already offered AI tools in different forms in Workspace. Over the past few years, Google has added windows for interacting with Gemini to Docs, Sheets, and Slides, but until now, those interactions didn’t have access to an organization’s data. Workspace’s apps currently include a button that brings up a Gemini chatbot that can make edits to your files, but until now, context from your larger organization wouldn’t be automatically pulled in. Workspace Intelligence is just one of many announcements that Google is making at Google Cloud NEXT, its annual conference in Las Vegas, and Kim says she used the semantic layer to prepare for her trip. To manage the “overwhelming” amount of slide decks, chats, emails, and docs getting thrown her way, Kim says, she has used Ask Gemini in Chat to develop briefings for all the customer meetings she has scheduled, along with separate briefings for her onsite internal team meetings. Workspace Intelligence is now available for all paid Google Workspace users. BY BEN SHERRY @BENLUCASSHERRY