Google Launches Duet Generative AI Assistant for Workspace and Chat

Google is releasing the Duet generative AI assistant across its Workspace apps following a preview at Google I/O. More than a million users tested Duet for months before Google made it accessible through Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, or other Workspace tools. Duet provides natural language assistance to automate tasks, generate content, answer questions, and recommend actions based on Workspace usage and context. It aims to boost individual and collaborative productivity. Google unveiled Duet among Google Cloud’s blast of other new generative AI features and tools, including the app pipelines for search and conversational AI fueled by large language models (LLMs).

Duet to It

Duet might be considered Google’s take on several increasingly popular generative AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Slack and other platforms, including its new enterprise variant, and more than a hint of the invisible and unmentioned Google Bard AI. Duet is embedded across Google Workspace. The AI is available to enhance documents, emails, meetings, presentations, and personal conversations for Workspace’s more than three billion users. Duet can generate presentations in Slides by summarizing relevant documents, reducing last-minute scramble on tight deadlines. It also augments Google Meet with automated translations, meeting recaps, and improved video quality and participation for remote attendees with AI-based lighting and sound tweaks. Duet is priced for businesses at $30 per user for access.

“With the introduction of Duet AI, we added AI as a real-time collaborator. Since its launch, thousands of companies and more than a million trusted testers have used Duet AI as a powerful collaboration partner that can act as a coach, source of inspiration, and productivity booster — all while ensuring every user and organization has control over their data,” Google Workspace general manager and vice president Aparna Pappu explained in a blog post. “With Duet AI, we’re now helping people get back to the best parts of their jobs, to the parts that rely on human creativity, ingenuity, and expertise. And because Duet AI works alongside the tools you already use, it’s easy to get started, even if you’re using another productivity solution.”

Google claims its approach keeps Duet interactions private and that the underlying models are not trained on customer content without explicit permission. That said, the tech giant is keen to emphasize how Duet mitigates any need for content migration, making for a more frictionless adoption of the toolkit. As part of the Workspace AI expansion, Google has also teamed with some generative AI startups, folding in some of their features into its platform. That list includes Typeface and Jasper, whose synthetic media content creation capabilities will be embedded into the marketing material generation process.

Generative Chattering

Duet in Chat lets users get AI-generated digests of conversations and content. It also enables quick, impromptu audio discussions in Huddles similar to those provided by Slack. The improvements aim to streamline communication and collaboration powered by AI. Duet in Chat can summarize missed conversations, answer complex questions by searching messages and files, and provide document digests. Chat also looks completely different, but that’s because of the new Google Material 3 design, not the AI. There’s also a lot more space for new members, ten times as much as before, with a limit of half a million people in a single online community.

As AI progresses from novelty to utility, Google is leapfrogging rivals in baking assisted intelligence directly into daily tasks. Rather than a standalone app, Duet tackles common pain points within the company’s ubiquitous Workspace and communications ecosystem. While risks remain regarding unvetted AI, Google believes these technologies can augment human collaboration and creativity. Duet aims to help users focus time and energy on meaningful work by handling drudgery and freeing cognitive capacity.

“Chat is not only great at the basics, now with AI built-in, it’s ready for the future. With Duet AI in Chat as a real-time collaboration partner, you can get updates, insights, and proactive suggestions across your Google Workspace apps,” Google Chat director and product manager Vamsee Jasti proclaimed in a blog post. “With these innovations and the integration of Duet AI, we’re making Google Chat a stronger foundation for anytime collaboration — now and in the future. That focus resonates with our global customers as they continue to seek greater efficiency and value from the tools they already have:”

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