The New AI Features in Google Workspace Seem Really Useful.
As a tech journalist who frequently uses Google Docs , I’m used to skipping various AI prompts and help offers when I want to write something using my own human brain. Now I’ll have to spend even more clicks to hide AI integrations on a blank page—though this time, some of them actually seem helpful.
Google continues to improve Gemini’s capabilities in Google Drive and its online office productivity apps: Docs, Slides, and Sheets. You can now create entire documents and spreadsheets on demand, write text in a specific style, and extract essential information from Google Drive files, Gmail, Google Chat, and your web browser. According to Google, these changes make Gemini in Google Workspace “more personalized, powerful, and collaborative,” and they are already rolling out to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers with English as the default language.
Google Docs gets new Gemini features.
The new changes are most noticeable when opening a new document: at the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a new Gemini panel, along with various options for matching the style of another document with AI-generated text and adding elements like email drafts or meeting notes. You can access this panel at any time by clicking the Gemini star icon at the bottom of the document.
You can enter any query into Gemini’s search bar. Want a short story about a fish? Need to send a stern letter to your neighbors about parking on the street? Gemini has you covered. Incidentally, I tried the fish story option, and it turned out pretty good—it was actually quite general. And if you click the “+” button in the lower left corner, you can import data from Google Drive, Google Chat, Gmail, and your web browser.
This opens up a wide range of possibilities. For example, you can compose an email to your boss using elements of your previous conversations, or plan a travel itinerary based on recommendations received in Google Chat. I asked Gemini to create a spreadsheet listing all the winners of the 2026 Oscars, and it worked flawlessly. (Thanks to the authors who published this information online.)
There are now more ways to improve existing text, as well as create new ones. Simply highlight a section of the document, then use a prompt to describe the desired changes. I asked Gemini to make the introduction to this article “more upbeat and humorous,” and they suggested adding phrases like “hold on tight” and “AI’s best friend.” (I declined.) I also tried the new style matching feature. In a blank document, if you click the sliders icon in the Gemini panel, you can select “Match writing style” to select an existing Google Docs document. Your subsequent writing prompts will match the style of the selected documents.
When I used data from my work, Gemini was able to generate text that vaguely resembled my own, but still felt rather unnatural and, let’s say, artificial. (However, I could distinguish it from standard AI-generated text.) For me, the most useful feature is the ability to extract information from other sources, rather than the text generation capabilities. I asked Gemini to connect to Google Drive and summarize everything I wrote for Lifehacker this year, and it did a decent job: the document was neatly formatted, informative, and (as far as I could tell) accurate.
Gemini also adds new features to Sheets, Slides, and Drive.
Updates in Sheets and Slides are similar to those in Docs: you get a much more prominent Gemini tooltip window, as well as the ability to import data from other files, chats, and email. I keep a text document with a roster of teams for our local 5-on-5 soccer matches, and I tried to get Gemini to create a spreadsheet showing how often each player attended the game. It worked perfectly. Impressive.
I also tried having Gemini create an entire spreadsheet dedicated to a fictitious school sports day, and again, I got results I couldn’t fault. I could then make changes to the demo spreadsheet using additional queries, without having to fiddle with cell editing at all. The AI occasionally asks for confirmation for certain actions, but for the most part, it’s a simple and straightforward process.
Google suggests creating a spreadsheet for organizing a move, for example, and adding necessary emails and documents. You can also use web search or Google Drive to fill in the data, adding relevant row and column headings—like in the Oscar example mentioned earlier. You could display the years at the top with the heading “Oscar Winner for Best Picture,” and Gemini will do the rest. However, Gemini’s integration with Slides is not yet very advanced. The ability to create entire presentations, according to Google, is coming “soon.” However, you can already import data from other sources and the web, match slideshow styles to an existing presentation, and use tooltips to customize all aspects of the presentation. For me, this has worked with varying success so far, with some odd formatting and text selection options.
As a British user, I haven’t yet been able to personally test the Gemini updates for the Google Drive interface. Unlike other updates, they are currently only available in the US. Judging by Google’s information and the demos I’ve seen, these updates are more of an overview of cloud storage using AI than of web technologies in general.
This means you can ask natural-language questions about any content in your Google Drive, such as “how many times did I write about Gemini in 2026?” Google uses the example of selecting a set of tax documents and asking Gemini questions to ask your tax advisor.
Despite my concerns about AI-generated text and the decline of our writing skills, these updates seem genuinely useful. They promise to reduce the time spent on simple and repetitive tasks and significantly simplify the creation of files with information from other Google apps (or from the web in general).