Artificial intelligence features are coming to Google Gmail, Docs, and more

In a blog post today, Google announced several Artificial Intelligence (AI) features for its various Workspace apps, including Google Docs, Gmail, Sheets, and Slides.

Google appears to look forward to catching up to competitors in the new AI race. ChatGPT seems to have disorganized the entire industry and things were not made any better when Microsoft launched its chatbot-enabled Bing. This has led the search giant to panic and launch similar AI features. The company reportedly sounded an alarm internally known as “code red” last year December and pushed all developers to start the process of integrating AI tools into all its user products by 2023.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT seems to have brought some good competition to the scene as Google’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) features. These include new ways to generate, summarize, and brainstorm text with AI in Google Docs (similar to how many people use), the option to generate full emails in Gmail based on users’ brief bullet points, and the ability to produce AI imagery, audio, and video to illustrate presentations in Slides.

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The full list below shows the Artificial Intelligence-powered features Google says will be coming to Workspace apps in the future:

• Draft, reply, summarize, and prioritize your Gmail
• Brainstorm, proofread, write, and rewrite in Docs
• Bring your creative vision to life with auto-generated images, audio, and video in Slides
• Go from raw data to insights and analysis via auto-completion, formula generation, and contextual categorization in Sheets
• Generate new backgrounds and capture notes in Meet
• Enable workflows for getting things done in Chat

An example of AI in Google Docs turning a prompt into a full job description. Image: Google

Of all the new features, the Artificial Intelligence writing and brainstorming tools in Docs and Gmail seem the most potentially useful. In a sample demo (GIF above), a user is shown the prompt “Help me write” and then enters a request: “Job post for a regional sales rep.” The AI system then completes the job spec for them in seconds, letting them edit and refine the text.

Microsoft is rumored to be building similar features into its Office suite of apps, including Word, Teams, and Outlook. Microsoft famously unsettled Google this year with the launch of the new Bing. Microsoft has scheduled an event where it will detail its plans for “the future of work with AI” later this week on March 16th.