The many ways you can use Gemini in Google Workspace to speed up your work.

Gemini in Google Workspace.

Gemini is an add-on AI that you can use in Google Workspace by Kimbley IT. It is a unique blend of active AI, which proactively assists you in tasks, and passive AI, which works in the background to enhance your experience.

With Gemini, you can save valuable time by having it create ideas for you, such as a price increase letter, marketing material, or a project breakdown. It can even remix an email to ensure the right tone and analyse data stored in Google Drive, tasks that would have previously consumed a significant portion of your day.

Gemini also offers passive features that enhance your experience and save time. With a simple click, Gemini can summarise a lengthy email conversation into a few paragraphs, making it easier to catch up. Plus, Gemini can enhance your video calls with AI-powered studio lighting and sound, ensuring you always look and sound your best.

Gemini Chatbot.

If you have ever used ChatGPT, the Gemini Chatbot works the same way: You provide a prompt, and the AI answers you. However, in the last few months, we have firmly believed that Gemini is significantly better at answering prompts than ChatGPT and significantly beats CoPilot and Claude.

You can access the free version of the Gemini Chatbot at gemini.google.com. However, like with the other free Chatbots, anything you enter may be used to train the AI and could be viewed by humans, so you should not enter business or confidential information!

The paid-for version of Gemini for Google Workspace allows you to do much more. Firstly, your data is kept private, never used for training, and inaccessible for human review.

Google Workspace Extensions.

Using extensions, you can mention other Google Workspace services, such as Gmail or even an individual document stored in Drive, to include in your prompt. This allows you to safely and securely use your business data to get AI-powered insights, which you can't do safely with any other chatbot.

Custom Gemini with Gems.

The new Gems feature allows you to build custom versions of Gemini that can work as experts on topics you have defined, only giving the answers in a way you have described from the sources you have provided.

For fun, we built a "Roaster" Gem. This Gem is prompted to roast someone based on the content of their LinkedIn profile. Below are the instructions the Roster needs to follow. Of course, while this example is for fun, you can build work-focused Gems, such as an onboarding Gem that can answer new hires' questions about your business.

Gemini in Gmail.

You and most of your team members receive a significant flow of emails in and out of your inbox, and managing those messages can be time-consuming and, for some, quite overwhelming. Gmail has loads of tools built in, such as labels and filters, to sort and organise your inbox, but these are all manual and need to be set up by you and then altered over time.

Summarise Emails.

Using Gemini in Gmail, you can ask Gemini to find specific emails and summarise them. I used Gemini recently to show me all the emails from my accountant related to my self-assessment tax return. Because I constantly put off sending over the information the accountant has requested throughout these emails, Gemini was able to summarise what I needed to do to keep my accountant off my back.

Last month, I went on my annual sea fishing trip. It was a good day out, but the catch was small this year; however, once I returned from the trip, a handful of emails were waiting in my inbox that I had been CC'd into. Some of these emails contained multiple conversations back and forth between participants. I was severely sunburnt after forgetting to put on sunscreen during the fishing trip. I could not be arsed to read each email to catch up, so I used the Gemini summary feature, which summarised the email conversations, getting me back up to speed. No one has called me out on missing anything, so the summarise function worked well.

Help Me Write.

If I needed to reply to any of these emails or create a new email, I could use Gemini to help me write a draft email, which I can remix and send quicker than starting with a blank canvas. However, I don't use this feature to compose emails. I prefer Grammarly for writing content, such as emails and blog posts. While Gemini is an AI-first content generator, which you alter to match your style after it has generated the content, Grammarly is the opposite; you create the content and then let AI remix it. I prefer this, so I use the term "Remixed with AI" to explain the process. Like an excellent musical remix, a song is an artist's composition, and a good remix keeps the song's message but is told in a slightly different way, which is what Grammarly does for me.

Gemini in Drive.

With all your files saved in Google Drive full of data but without much structure, traditional data analysis tools will struggle to bring you meaningful insights. Gemini doesn't mind. Your data can be stored and structured how you like, and by giving Gemini a prompt, you can look through all your files and bring back usable information in only a handful of seconds.

Recently, I wanted to find out which of our client's agreements were due for auto-renewal in the next three months. I know that all the contracts are stored in Google Drive, but we had no one point that I could look to see this information; I would need to manually go through all client contracts and any specific terms they might have to find the answer.

Instead, I used the Gemini sidebar in Google Drive to prompt Gemini to find this information. It came back with a list of clients and their renewal dates; it also clearly read their associated terms of service and told me how long each agreement would renew (12, 18 or 36 months). It all seemed too good to be true, as this was my first time using Gemini for such a task. I verified that Gemini was giving me the correct information and not hallucinating. I was happy to discover that the reply to my prompt was completely accurate, with no hallucinations occurring. Hallucinations are much less common when AI uses a controlled data set with a specific prompt.

Gemini in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

The three primary productivity and collaboration tools in Google Workspace are Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. These tools feature Gemini, which can be accessed through the right sidebar within all three editors. Gemini enhances your experience by providing additional features and functionality to streamline workflow and collaboration.

Google Docs.

Like Gmail, Gemini in Google Docs will help you organise your thoughts rather than staring at a blank document, hoping some inspiration will come. Several of our clients have used Gemini to help compose price rise letters. Gemini has helped them strike the correct tone while clearly explaining the reasons for the price rises coming down the line, which they have told me would have been tricky and time-consuming if they needed to compose these letters from a blank start.

Google Sheets.

With Gemini in Google Sheets, you can use the sidebar to interrogate the data in your Sheet. Maybe to find patterns in the data that aren't obvious through a general browse. At Kimbley IT, we have an automated system that records all the assistance and support cases we have dealt with. Using Gemini, we can quickly identify team members at our clients who would not have needed to get in contact if the company they work for had provided more regular training on the tools they use.

Google Slides.

Everyone wants a nice-looking slide deck, but many do not have professional designers, so you either have to put up with a pre-packaged template or take the time to make one that is passable but not memorable. Gemini in Google Slides is your side-kick designer; using prompts, you can get Gemini to design a slide deck for you, right down to creating images that match the content in your deck.

Gemini in Google Meet.

Google has focused a lot on integrating Gemini into Google Meet. Gemini in Google Meet is more passive than active. Yes, you can enter a prompt to have it generate a background of anything you can imagine. But Gemini in Meet offers a more subtle set of once-and-forget AI features.

Studio sound and lighting.

Studio sound and lighting are examples of a set-once-and-forget Gemini feature. Gemini can improve the audio captured from your microphone and upscale it to studio quality so you sound crystal clear to other video call participants. Gemini can also improve your image quality by letting you place virtual studio lighting on your camera feed. This way, you and your room are illuminated just how you want them to be without purchasing physical lights.

Take Notes For Me.

One of Gemini's "killer features" is included in Google Meet. Take Notes For Me will create a Google Doc and fill that Doc with notes of what was discussed during your video call. The creation happens in real-time, so if someone joins late to the call, they can open the notes document and catch up on what has already been discussed.

The created notes document starts with a summary of the call and then bullet points key points of the conversation and any actions that need to be taken once the call ends. At Kimbley IT, we have been using this feature to create a notes document when we have been on sales calls with leads. Knowing Gemini is taking notes allows us to be fully immersed in the conversation rather than taking notes while trying to keep actively listening to the call. Once the call is completed, the notes document is fantastic for referencing when creating a proposal to send to the lead.

How to get Gemini for Google Workspace.

If your business is using Google Workspace, your system administrator should be able to enable you to use Gemini. If you are a Kimbley IT customer, the free version of the Gemini Chatbot will be available to you right now!

If you want access to all the features mentioned above or have no one looking after your Google Workspace, book a video call below to learn more about upgrading Gemini and getting your Google Workspace managed by Kimbley IT- a UK-based authorises Google Workspace Partner.