Can AI help us play nice at work?

Editorial note: Duet AI for Google Workspace is now Gemini for Google Workspace. Learn more. This post also appears in our LinkedIn newsletter AI@Work with Google Workspace.

As Chief Workspace Evangelist, I have the privilege of talking to our customers every day. And in the last few months, all of those conversations have revolved around Duet AI — a powerful new way of working with generative AI in Google Workspace. 

The two questions I hear most often are: How do I know this is a safe feature? and How can I use Duet AI at work?

The first question is easy to answer. Every interaction you have with Duet AI in Google Workspace is private, confidential, and protected by zero-trust security. Your data always stays in Workspace, and your privacy is protected no matter what feature you’re using. All interactions with Duet AI stay within your organization, and your content isn’t used for any other customers. 

The second question is one I’d like to dig into further, because generative AI has boundless potential to enhance the way we work, especially in bridging gaps between teams. 

Remove friction from working together

In the new era of work, collaboration happens from anywhere, at any time. So how does generative AI make it even easier for people to stay connected and share ideas across teams? 

Imagine a retail company that’s building a customer-facing mobile app. The teams that need to partner on the project are spread across regions and departments. To start off on the right foot, they need a project plan that works for everyone. The project lead creates a draft plan with Duet AI’s help me write feature, outlining key milestones, roles, risks, and success metrics. Once the team has a baseline they’re happy with, they can review and edit it together, and bring in additional content and context using @mentions with smart chips. 

Generative AI also improves the project kickoff call by making it easier for everyone in the distributed team to be seen, heard, and understood. Duet AI in Google Meet offers real-time translations so everyone can follow along in their language of choice, and it automatically enhances sound and lighting to override distractions like noisy airports or slow internet connections.

And when it comes to initial prototype brainstorming, the team uses help me visualize in Google Slides to get inspired about designs and visual directions for the app. They can provide source documents from Drive and Gmail as part of the Duet AI prompt, ultimately building a presentation to share their work more broadly.

Keep everyone in the loop

One of the big challenges working across time zones is finding a time when everyone can meet. Say the retail company’s app is ready for a launch strategy. Not everyone can attend the strategy meeting, but with the attend for me feature (coming soon), Duet AI automatically takes meeting notes, captures relevant video clips, and then sends a Doc summary to those who couldn’t make it. With generative AI, missing out on a meeting doesn’t mean being left out of the loop.

In a fast-moving project, it’s also easy to lose track of important information in comments, chat messages, and document updates. With Duet AI’s automatic Doc summaries, it’s easy to keep everyone up to speed by giving a snapshot of the most important information. And if big decisions are being made in Google Chat, generative AI summarizes the key takeaways for any missed conversations, so even teammates 17 hours away feel like they’re in the know.

Transform team dynamics 

Silos at work aren’t new, but the way we work today often magnifies them. I’ve seen firsthand how Duet AI is helping our customers create a more connected work culture, where people can participate and bring their best ideas to life — from anywhere. In short, it can help us be more collaborative, bring everyone into the conversation, and work better together.