Google is bringing its Duet AI to Google Workspace, with options starting from automated summarization of paperwork to one thing you’ll most likely actually respect: a digital avatar that may attend conferences for you when you may’t make it.
Sadly, Duet AI for Google Workspace is only for companies proper now, who shall be requested to pay for it: $30 per person monthly, the identical value Microsoft fees for its personal Microsoft 365 Copilot AI choices for companies. Aparna Pappu, Google Workspace’s vp and normal supervisor, informed CNBC {that a} shopper model will arrive subsequent yr.
A few of these options had been introduced at Google I/O in Might, however are arriving on Workspace for the primary time.
Nonetheless, the options look intriguing. In Meet, for instance, AI is getting used to routinely modify lighting and audio, which Google calls “studio lighting” and “studio sound.” Should you’re in a gathering room, AI may also acknowledge you and provide you with your personal “tile” inside Meet, in order that any distant person can extra simply choose you out.
It’s the extra superior options, although, that promise that you just’ll be capable to “work,” even on a sick day. Not solely can Duet seize notes and generate summaries of the assembly (even in actual time) however an “attend for me” characteristic will be capable to be a part of the assembly for you,” delivering your message” and securing a recap to evaluation later. It sounds like several avatar shall be much less of a digital you than a voice mail message of types, however not less than you’ll be capable to direct colleagues and obtain their responses with out having to dial in.
Gmail, too, is including some AI options, a few of which it’s tipped off earlier than. One specifically sounds helpful: improved, longer automated replies. It’s common for Gmail (or Phrase, or Outlook) to counsel phrases and phrases as you sort, however Gmail will now even add longer, customized replies to save lots of time. This characteristic will come first to Gmail cellular, adopted rapidly by a contextual characteristic that may “fill in” colleagues by identify. Likewise, Google Chat now gives the power to speak “directly” to Duet, although that’s a characteristic that Microsoft, Slack, and others have already carried out.
In any other case, Workspace is including options which were talked about earlier than, from Microsoft and elsewhere: synthesizing a number of paperwork, for instance, to create summaries. Google says that these summaries can contains textual content, charts, and pictures, although it’s not clear whether or not Duet will create them on the fly or they’ll merely be pulled in from present paperwork.
Google can also be including particular options to its Workspace elements that aren’t barnburners, however that really feel notably useful: In Sheets, for instance, Duet’s AI will attempt to assign a label to a column of knowledge in the event you haven’t already given it one, attempting to save lots of you a while. You can even use AI to give you a plan or mission that will help you get organized, which you’ll additional refine. In Docs, Google says, Duet is sensible sufficient to routinely generate job postings, primarily based upon what it is aware of of the group.
Among the new options really feel reasonably blah, particularly after Microsoft introduced comparable capabilities in Microsoft 365 Copilot: Meet can auto-generate an AI background, for instance, and Google Slides can do the identical for a customized background. However that simply goes to point out you the way far AI has come. Customers will simply have to attend a bit longer.
