Gmail gets an AI-powered upgrade. At its Google I/O 2024 conference on Tuesday, Google announced that Gmail users will be able to search, summarize and compose their emails using its Gemini AI technology. It will also be able to act on emails for more complex tasks, like helping you process an e-commerce return by searching your inbox, finding the receipt, and filling out an online form.
In a demo at I/O, the company showed how a parent wanting to keep up to date with what’s happening at their child’s school could ask Gemini to summarize all recent emails from the school, according to Google. In addition to the body of the emails themselves, the feature will also be able to scan attachments, like PDFs. The resulting summary will include key points or action items.
In another demonstration, Google showed how Gemini in Gmail could help a homeowner doing home renovations compare different quotes from contractors who had emailed their bids.
From a Gmail sidebar, users can ask Gemini to help them organize their email receipts and even place them in a Drive folder, or extract information from receipts and place them in a spreadsheet. If this is something you do often (for example, as a business traveler to track expenses), Gemini can also offer to automate the workflow for future use.
It remains to be seen whether Gmail users will want to enable AI technology in their inbox. In the past, users were uncomfortable with how Google analyzed emails for ad targeting purposes, even though the system was automated and no humans were involved. Today, there are growing concerns about how AI is trained and how people’s data is used in this process. Gmail users may be uncomfortable with the idea of an AI being able to “read” their emails for them, despite the benefits and efficiency such a system brings.
In addition to scanning Gmail, Gemini will be able to write emails for you, Google said.
Elsewhere in its Workspace suite, Gemini will be able to offer meeting highlights in Google Meet.
Gemini 1.5 Pro will be available in Workspace Labs as an optional upgrade for those who want to try its capabilities.
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