Google brings Gemini AI chat app to Workspace, boosting productivity for millions of enterprise users

Google is adding Gemini chatbot to its business productivity suite, Google Workspace, instead of being a standalone platform, increasing access to its enterprise-grade AI app.

“With enterprise-grade data protections built in, employees everywhere can now save time and deliver higher quality work — securely and compliantly — with an AI-powered assistant at work,” said Aparna Pappu, vice president and general manager Google Workspace in a blog post, ahead of the Gemini at Work event today. 

Workspace users in the Business, Enterprise and Frontline plans will automatically get access to the Gemini app that’s now built into the platform. Workspace offers enterprises access to a large swathe of Google products Gmail, Docs and Calendars but with the option of using their own domains and enterprise-level security. (Editor’s note: VentureBeat uses Google Workspace). 

Access to the Gemini app lets users ask the chatbot questions about company information or suggest actions based on the organization’s policies. In many ways, the Gemini app being on Workspace is reminiscent of Microsoft’s Copilot bundle that lets Microsoft productivity suite users chat with Copilot. 

Pappu said companies on Workspace “will have choice and control” over how the Gemini app retains information and responds to user prompts. Google reiterated that any data, prompts or generated responses will not be used to train its Gemini models. 

This is not the first time Google has added generative AI features to Workspace. For an additional fee, Workspace users can add Gemini (the AI model) to Gmail, Docs, Drive and other apps directly so the model can make email suggestions or take notes during Google Meets. It also previewed Google Vids, an AI video generation platform for enterprise users on Workspace Labs.

New security insights on Workspace

Google also announced a new toolkit for Workspace customers to secure their businesses. Pappu said the security advisor is a “personal security expert that can offer business-tailored insights, actionable guidance and additional threat prevention and data protection controls.” 

The advisor will send security insights to the IT administrator’s inboxes. The feature will be available to Workspace Business users “over the next few weeks.” 

Along with the new security insights, Google also announced it secured new industry certifications for Gemini for Workspace. Its AI solutions are now SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001 and ISO 27001 compliant. It previously gained HIPPA compliance for Gemini earlier this year. 

Improving the quality of work

Pappu said a recent Google survey of enterprise customers showed 75% of daily users of the Gemini model on Workspace said it has improved their quality of work and has saved 105 minutes per week.

Google highlighted the impact of Gemini on its customers in the Gemini at Work event. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said the company’s seen massive adoption from organizations with more than two million developers building with its AI platforms and an increase of around 36 times in API usage of the Gemini models. 

Kurian said many of its customers had begun building AI agents and applications that boosted their productivity.

“We’re inspired by the ingenuity and speed with which our customers are embracing gen AI. And we continue to work hard to partner with customers to help them deliver real business value in the form of incremental leads, conversions, sales, and profits,” Kurian said.