Google Workspace AI Boost ‘Empowers’ Gmail, Docs Customers

Generative AI is coming to Google Workspace, beginning with Gmail and Docs and then followed by Meet, Chat, Sheets and Slides. Here’s what Google channel partners need to know.

Google is injecting new generative artificial intelligence capabilities into Google Workspace, beginning with Gmail and Docs, in a move that will empower customers by taking efficiency and productivity to the next level.

“Things that used to take precious minutes and hours can now be done in the background and simply be reviewed, edited and approved now—for example, by using AI to draft a full-length email,” said Betsy Reed, co-founder and CRO of fast-growing Google Cloud and Workspace partner CloudWerx. “My prediction is that this will streamline organizations to be more nimble, efficient and responsive, leading to better business outcomes overall.”

Google Tuesday introduced a set of AI-powered writing features in Google Docs and Gmail that developers will test out in the coming weeks but will become generally available to customers in the near future.

By simply typing in a topic on Gmail or Docs that a user would like to write about, Google Workspace will instantly generate a draft. Users can then continue to leverage the new AI to continue to refine and edit with suggestions.

[Related: AWS Vs. Azure Vs. GCP: Flexera 2023 Customer Cloud Results]

In addition, new generative AI capabilities in Workspace allow users to set the tone or mood of the writing. For example, if a user is in the mood to let AI try out a new playful writing voice, users can hit the “I’m feeling lucky” option in Gmail.

Google Meet, Chat, Sheets And Slides AI Innovation On The Way

Google said generative AI will be injected into other Workspace products including Meet, Chat, Slides and Sheets throughout the year.

For Google Slides, the company said users will be able to bring to life their creative vision with auto-generated images, audio and video in Slides.

In Google Sheets, users will be able to go from raw data to insight and analysis via auto-completion, formula generation and contextual categorization inside Sheets.

For Google Meet, users will be able to generate new backgrounds and capture notes, while Google Chat will be enhanced to enable workflows for getting things done in Chat, according to the company.

Thomas Kurian Weighs In On Workspace Enhancements

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said more than 3 billion people already benefit from AI-powered features in Workspace, such as Smart Compose in Gmail or auto-generated summaries in Google Docs. However, this “next step” for Gmail and Docs makes the process of writing even easier.

“So if you’re a manager on-boarding a new employee, Workspace saves you the time and effort involved in writing that first welcome mail,” said Kurian in a blog post Tuesday. “From there, you can elaborate upon or abbreviate the message or adjust the tone to be more playful or professional—all in just a few clicks.”

From a channel standpoint, CloudWerx’s Reed said by integrating these AI features into the Workspace suite of tools, a Google partner “empowers teams” and customers “by giving them the ability to accelerate their workflows.”

“This frees up teams to focus on solving the hard problems and challenges that they and their customers face on a daily basis,” said Reed. “It makes the ‘business of the business’ a far lighter lift.”

Google Workspace Price Increases

The new generative AI innovation comes just one month after Google unveiled it is changing the pricing and term options for Workspace, starting in April 2023.

Google is increasing the price for its Flexible Plan subscriptions by 20 percent. For Workspace Business Starter, the Flexible Plan price is now $7.20 per user, per month—up from $6. For Workspace Business Standard, the Flexible Plan price is now $14.40 per user, per month—up from $12. For Workspace Business Plus, the Flexible Plan price is now $21.60 per user, per month—up from $18.

Starting March 14, new customers will be able to sign up for a new Annual Plan purchase option, and existing customers on the Flexible Plan can switch to the Annual Plan.

Google has introduced a new Annual Plan for all Google Workspace Editions for customers that are ready to commit to a longer-term agreement, which enables businesses to lock in the lowest price per user. Annual plans range from $6 per user, per month for Workspace Business Starter, to $18 per user, per month for Workspace Business Plus.

‘The Best Is Yet To Come’

Johanna Voolich Wright, vice president of product for Google Workspace, said “the best is yet to come” in terms of AI innovation for Workspace.

“AI-based capabilities get better with human feedback,” said Wright in a blog post Tuesday. “We’ll launch these new experiences this month via our trusted tester program, starting with English in the United States.”

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google will then iterate and refine the experiences before making them available more broadly to consumers, small businesses, enterprises and educational institutions in more countries and languages.

“When it comes to delivering the full potential of generative AI across Workspace, we’re just getting started,” said Wright. “In the same way that we revolutionized real-time collaboration with co-authoring in Docs 17 years ago, we’re excited to transform creation and collaboration all over again in Workspace.”