Google is adding new generative AI features to the Google Workspace suite of cloud-native productivity tools, including Docs, Sheets, and Slides, to further help its millions of professional users collaborate daily, the company announced at Google Cloud Next on Tuesday. The biggest highlight is Google Vids, a new application that lets users create videos while leveraging generative AI assistance.
Google Vids is meant to be an AI-powered “video, writing, production and editing assistant,” according to Google. For example, the app can generate a video storyboard, piece together a user’s first draft with hand-picked scenes from stock videos, and even select the perfect voiceover, as seen in the video above.
“It’s an entirely new app that can help anyone become a great storyteller at work,” Aparna Pappu, VP/GM of Google Workspace, said in a blog post.
In the same way that users can collaborate in Google Docs on a document, Google Vids lets users work together on a video, with a simple interface that also makes it easy to share your work. Google Vids will be added to Workspace Labs in June 2024.
Google also introduced two new AI add-ons: AI Meetings and Messaging, and AI Security.
The AI Meetings and Messaging add-on includes features such as “Take notes for me,” available in preview now, which takes notes for you in Meet; “Translate for me,” coming in June, which automatically detects and translates captions in Meet; and a feature that automatically translates messages and conversation summaries in Google Chat, coming later this year.
AI Classification
The AI Security add-on lets IT teams use generative AI to classify and protect sensitive files in Google Drive automatically. Both of the add-ons are available today for $10 per user per month each.
Google also teased new features coming to Workspace soon, including voice prompting, which lets users use voice input in the “Help me write”feature, and instant polish in Gmail, which easily converts notes into an email format, as seen on the right.
In the coming weeks, Google Sheets will get new table features that help users lift and organize data in sheets by selecting a template from Google’s new set of building blocks, circumventing having to build one from scratch.
Google Docs is getting some upgrades of its own. In the upcoming weeks, Docs will get tabs that allow users to organize information in the same document, and a personalization feature that lets users personalize documents with “full-bleed cover images that extend from one edge of your browser to the other.”
Google Docs Tabs
Lastly, Google is upgrading the Google Chat member capacity for spaces to 500,000 and enabling Chats messaging interoperability with Slack and Teams in the coming weeks.
To access Gemini in Google Workspace, you need to have a Workspace account for your business. You can then sign up for a 14-day Gemini trial to experience many of these features.
Even though these features are only available for business accounts, they are a good indicator of features that will be coming to the general public soon. Oftentimes, companies will first offer features to their enterprise customers to gauge interest and collect feedback before making them more broadly available.
Artificial Intelligence
