Google is bringing back the spirit of Clippy, the infamous Microsoft Office assistant, with its newly launched Gemini AI sidebar for Workspace. This AI-powered tool is rolling out across the entire Workspace suite, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive.
As Google announced earlier this month at their I/O conference, Gemini is designed to assist users with summarizing, analyzing, and generating content. It leverages insights gathered from your emails, documents, and more to provide tailored assistance.
However, access to these features is not free. You’ll need a paid Gemini subscription, either through a Workplace subscription with the Gemini Business or Enterprise option, a Gemini Education subscription through your school, or a $20/month personal Google One AI Premium subscription.
The AI offers “proactive prompts” as you work, similar to how Clippy used to interrupt your tasks with suggestions. In Docs, Gemini can summarize documents, refine text, and even generate content based on imported files. Slides users can leverage the AI to create new slides, custom imagery, and even design presentations. Sheets users benefit from automated table and graph generation, streamlining data analysis.
Drive is unique in that the Gemini AI can summarize multiple documents and provide quick facts about a project based on the files you drag into the sidebar. This makes it easier to understand and manage large projects.
The Gemini AI for Gmail is rolling out to both web and mobile users, supporting Android and iOS devices. It can summarize email threads, suggest replies that avoid HR trouble, draft entire emails, and even answer specific questions about the contents of an email thread.
Depending on your rollout schedule (Rapid Release or Scheduled Release), you should start seeing the AI features become available within one to three days or up to two weeks. Once it appears, you can access the AI by navigating to the side panel, clicking on “Ask Gemini” (the spark button) in the top-right corner, and starting a chat.
This new AI-powered feature is a significant step for Google, further solidifying its commitment to integrating AI into everyday workflows and bringing new levels of productivity to users.
