The recent Google Cloud Next ‘24 event showcased an array of enhancements to Google Workspace, including innovative AI-powered features like Vertex AI and Google Vids. These additions aim to bolster team collaboration and productivity. Despite the competition’s strides in AI integration, Google’s introduction of “Gemini for Google Workspace” sets it apart, says GlobalData, a leading data and analyst company.

Gregg Willsky, Principal Enterprise Technology and Services Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Google revealed an eclectic mix of capabilities. Some are utilitarian in nature such as a meetings and messaging add-on consisting of ‘Take notes for me’ (now in preview) and ‘Translate for me’ (coming in June 2024). Others were outright stars that were intriguing in and of themselves such as Vertex AI (a development platform for use with Workspace to build custom AI agents) and Google Vids (coming in June 2024) which leverages AI to help create videos for promotion, training, and similar purposes.”

GlobalData’s analysis finds that regardless of their individual stature, most striking is the overall quality of the features revealed, as well as the influence Google has maintained in the team collaboration space.

Willsky observes: “Competitors have recently been reaching deep into the ‘treasure trove’ of AI (especially GenAI) and sprinkling AI-powered features from one side of their platforms to the other. But when anything gets sprinkled, inevitably some spots are missed. Competitors are beginning to go back and fill the ‘holes’. At ‘Next’, Google demonstrated it is no exception.”

As Google and its rivals (such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Zoom) have been introducing AI capabilities, a question has plagued each of them: what makes their “brand” of AI different? Google is the first to have an answer – “Gemini for Google Workspace,” the GenAI-powered assistant fueled by Gemini, the most capable set of LLMs Google has ever built.

Willsky concludes: “Gemini was built to be multimodal natively; it can seamlessly process different data types (such as text, code, audio, video, and images) while consuming far less power, able to run even on a mobile device. The Ultra 1.0 version was the first solution to outperform human experts on massive multitask language understanding (MMLU) tests. The 1.5 Pro version (announced at the event) should strengthen this capability meaning even more compelling enhancements should come to Workspace.”