Your favorite Google Workspace apps are getting a major Duet AI boost

Google Workspace
(Image credit: Google)

Your daily Google Workspace apps are set to receive a major AI boost thanks to a significant update from the company.

As part of its Google Next 23 announcements, the company has revealed its office software suite will be getting full Duet AI interoperability, bringing advancements in efficiency and productivity across the board.

The changes should impact some of the most widely-used Workspace apps including Google Meet, which is getting better lighting and sound, automated translated captions and real-time content snippets, and Google Sheets & Docs, which will get better content discovery tools.

Duet AI for Google Workspace

Google first announced Duet AI at Google I/O 2023, as the tech giant's response to systems such as ChatGPT which have kickstarted the current AI boom. 

"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," Google noted in a blog post announcing the news.

Described as "the next wave of AI innovation in Workspace", Google outlined how Duet AI can be your "intelligent, real-time collaboration partner" to dramatically reduce the burden of your work.

The company gave the example of Duet AI helping a financial analyst complete a last-minute presentation by using a prompt such as, "create a summary of Q3 performance", saving the user the strain of searching through various Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files to manually find the data.

"Duet AI can create a whole new presentation, complete with text, charts and images, based on your relevant content in Drive and Gmail," Google noted.

hand holding a phone with google workspace on the screen

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Elsewhere, Duet AI is looking to improve your video conferencing meetings in Google Meet, by making them more intuitive and helpful.

First off, the system is boosting lighting and audio quality on all calls, making it easier to look and sound your best when speaking to colleagues or customers across the world, with face detection and dynamic tiles helping participants spot who is talking more easily. 

Google Meet will also be getting automatic translated captions, with 18 languages initially available, as the service is able to automatically detect when another language is spoken and display the translation in real time.

Finally, Duet AI wants to help you focus on your call by taking care of note-taking and sending out recaps. A new "take notes for me" feature will capture notes, action items and real-time video snippets, sending out a summary after the meeting has ended. 

Latecomers can quickly get up to speed with a "summary so far" feature that gives a round-up of what has already happened, and for those who can't attend the meeting, the new "attend for me" tool will see Duet AI take your place, delivering your message on your behalf, and sending you a summary afterwards.

Users can try out the new Duet AI for Google Workspace tools now, and new customers can benefit from a no-cost trial allowing them a first look for free.

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Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.