Google Assistant Integrates New G Suite Business Tools
Google Assistant can now access some of Google’s G Suite apps. The voice assistant’s new features are in beta, but will expand to the larger userbase after improvements are made.
Google Assistant Business
The new updates give Google Assistant access to only a few of the G Suite apps at the moment. The voice assistant can manage Google Calendar scheduling, setting, rescheduling, and canceling meetings by voice command. Google Assistant can also be used to connect to conference calls or send emails to people in a conference call. Referencing the calendar, users only have to ask to join their next meeting, without adding more detail, for the voice assistant to understand what to do. The voice assistant can also now connect with the Google Hangouts Meet devices built by Asus to streamline phone calls and meetings in physical conference rooms.
Google is also applying its AI to the G Suite in a non-voice function. The Smart Compose feature currently available in Gmail will now be usable in Google Docs. Smart Compose suggests common phrases to speed up writing when repetition is common. The AI tracks how a user writes and adapts to their style so that the suggestions become based off of previously written documents. The AI will also start offering better grammar and spelling suggestions in Google Docs as it learns what words and initialisms may not be in the dictionary but are still correct for certain writing projects.
Google took the first step to start integrating Google Assistant into the G Suite back in April at Cloud Next 2019. Google updated G Suite to allow users to sign in via Google Assistant to check their calendar. G Suite is very popular among businesses for its flexible and often cheap range of services like email, scheduling, and document sharing. Google’s business voice efforts have been more on the customer interaction side, such as the voice AI customer service tool CallJoy. The new G Suite features connects another aspect of enterprise services to Google’s voice technology.
Enterprise Voice Competition
Google is upping its efforts to bring its voice assistant to the business world at the same time as almost every other big name in voice technology or enterprise services. Salesforce just launched a voice skills platform for clients to create custom voice apps for its Einstein platform last month, right after working Apple to create a Siri Shortcut for voice control of its mobile app. Then there’s the new Oracle Digital Assistant, which Oracle customers can use to streamline paperwork and customer service by voice.
Google will also have to contend with its voice tech rivals. Amazon has been working on building up its Alexa for Business offerings, with more features for its enterprise skill-building kits. Meanwhile, Microsoft has gone all-in on enterprise voice services, ending Cortana’s independence and consumer-facing skills and merging it into business and productivity tools instead. For instance, Cortana is now integrated into the Outlook app, while the new Surface Earbuds cost $250, mainly because of their compatibility with Office 365 via Cortana. Google and its G Suite tools have a lot of advantages, but its voice capability will need to contend with plenty of rivalries.
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