Today, Google announced the launch of Gemini for Workspace, a new business-centric offering that brings the power of Gemini Ultra 1.0 – the company’s most capable model – across Workspace apps like Docs and Meet with enterprise-grade data protections.
Available starting today at two different pricing brackets, Gemini for Workspace is an improved, rebranded avatar of Duet AI for Workspace, which previously delivered gen AI offerings (like the help me write feature) on Workspace apps. Notably, this is the second major rebrand from the company to bring focus on the ‘Gemini’ moniker. The first one was the renaming of its Bard chatbot to Gemini.
In addition to building Gemini into apps, the new rebranded offering will also give Workspace users a standalone Gemini chatbot experience to accelerate their workflows and creativity without worrying about privacy or security risks.
The move is expected to strengthen Google’s game against Microsoft, which has already done something similar with its Copilot experience for businesses.
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What to expect from Gemini for Workspace?
In a blog post announcing the rebrand, Aparna Pappu, the GM and Vice President for Google Workspace, noted that new and existing customers will be able to sign up for a Gemini add-on to get access to the advanced AI model across Workspace apps. At the core, there will be two types of add-ons: a business add-on for small-sized organizations and an enhanced Enterprise one, formerly called Duet AI for Workspace Enterprise, with more usage and features for heavy users.
With both plans, users will get access to Gemini Ultra 1.0-powered experiences. For instance, a better help me write feature in Docs and Gmail, enhanced Smart Fill in Sheets and image generation in Slides. Similar features are also being offered to consumers through the Google One AI Premium Plan.
“On any given day, millions of small businesses use Google Workspace to connect, create, and collaborate, and in a recent survey, 88% of SMB customers expressed interest in working with generative AI to assist them with data analysis, task management, email drafting, customer support, and more. To help businesses like them be more productive with their limited resources, we’re launching the Gemini Business add-on…,” Pappu wrote.
The Enterprise experience also brings the same capabilities but with the advantage of “unfettered access to Gemini”. Plus, it includes advanced AI meetings, where the model will translate captions in over 100 language pairs and even take meeting notes. However, the latter is slated to debut at a later stage.
Both plans will include a secure chat experience
Both business and enterprise plans will also come with a standalone chat experience of Gemini. This will work as an AI sidekick of sorts, providing users with insightful and expert responses to help them accelerate their workflows.
“For example, a marketing manager can use Gemini to help them identify topics for an email marketing campaign by analyzing industry trends, product developments, and competitor messaging. Gemini can then assist in crafting compelling copy that directly ties those trends to their unique offering, with a benefit-oriented subject line to drive open rates,” Pappu explained.
Most importantly, the Workspace-driven experience will come with enterprise-grade data protection and copyright indemnification, making sure that the interactions are kept private all the time.
“With a Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise plan, your conversations are not used for advertising purposes, reviewed by human reviewers, or otherwise used to train generative machine-learning technologies,” the VP added.
Taking on Microsoft with better pricing?
Google has priced the business add-on of Gemini for Workspace at $20/user per month with an annual commitment, while the enterprise tier is kept at $30/user per month. On the other hand, Microsoft has kept a single price tier for its GPT-4 and DALL-E-driven business-centric Copilot for Microsoft 365 at $30/user per month.
This difference in pricing can drive up the adoption of Google’s offering, especially from small businesses. However, it is important to note that Microsoft does offer a $20/user per month Pro version of Copilot but it lacks enterprise-grade protections.
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