It seems like every other week a new AI tool pops up promising to completely change how we work. Google has now officially jumped into the fray, embedding its AI, Gemini, directly into the Google Workspace tools that millions of us use every single day. It’s a big deal, bringing AI right into the familiar spaces of Gmail, Docs, and Sheets.
But while having an AI assistant sounds great in theory, what does it actually do for your team’s day-to-day work? Will it really free up hours of your time, or is it just another feature to learn in an already packed toolkit?
This guide is here to give you the real story. We’ll break down what Google Workspace Gemini is, what it can (and can’t) do, the new pricing, and the practical limits you should know about, especially if you’re running a specialized team like customer support.
What exactly is Google Workspace Gemini?
First things first, Google Workspace Gemini isn’t a single app you install. Think of it more as a set of AI features that are now part of the Workspace suite you already know. It’s like a built-in assistant designed to help with individual tasks like writing, summarizing, organizing, and brainstorming.
It’s really made up of three main parts working together:
The AI assistance you’ll see inside apps like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets is the first part. This is what helps you draft an email, get a quick summary of a long document, or create a table from a simple instruction. Then there’s the standalone Gemini App, which is a conversational AI (similar to ChatGPT) that you can find at gemini.google.com. This is better for more open-ended things like spitballing ideas or doing some research. Finally, there’s NotebookLM, an AI-powered research tool where you can upload your own documents and have it help you pull out key info and find connections.
The main takeaway here is that Gemini is built to help one person get their own work done faster. It’s a personal productivity tool, not something designed to automate an entire team’s workflow.
A breakdown of key Google Workspace Gemini features
So, what can you actually do with it? Let’s walk through how Gemini shows up in the tools you use every day.
Google Workspace Gemini in Gmail and Google Chat for communication
For anyone whose inbox is a source of low-grade anxiety, Gemini has a few tricks up its sleeve. It can scan a long, messy email thread and give you the highlights, so you don’t have to read every single reply to figure out what’s going on.
The "Help me write" feature is also pretty useful. You can give it a simple prompt, like "write a friendly follow-up to the client about the proposal," and it’ll spit out a draft that you can then tweak. It also makes smart replies a bit smarter, offering suggestions that actually fit the tone and context of the conversation, instead of just "Sounds good!"
Google Workspace Gemini in Google Docs for content creation
If you’ve ever found yourself just staring at a blank page, you know how tough starting can be. In Google Docs, Gemini can act as a writing partner. You can ask it to draft a blog post, outline a project plan, or just rewrite a paragraph to sound a bit more professional.
Just like in Gmail, it can also summarize a long document, which is a lifesaver when you need to get up to speed on a report or meeting notes quickly. A newer feature lets you create custom images directly inside your document from a text prompt, which means one less trip to another tool.
Google Workspace Gemini in Google Sheets for data organization
Spreadsheets can feel a little intimidating, but Gemini is there to make them more approachable. You can ask it to generate custom tables and templates for things like project trackers or budget sheets. Just describe what you need, and it builds the basic structure for you.
It also has an "Enhanced Smart Fill" feature that’s pretty clever at spotting patterns in your data and helping you fill out columns automatically. If you’re doing a lot of repetitive data entry, this can save a ton of time. For the more advanced spreadsheet wizards, there’s even a built-in AI function that lets you generate text or categorize data right from a cell, almost like a formula.
Google Workspace Gemini in Google Slides and Meet for collaboration
When you’re putting together a presentation, Gemini can help with the visuals by generating custom images for your Google Slides. In Google Meet, it can create unique backgrounds, which is a nice touch for video calls.
But probably one of the most useful features is the "Take notes for me" button in Google Meet. It automatically captures notes and action items from your meeting and saves them in a Google Doc. This means you can actually focus on the conversation instead of frantically typing. To help with global teams, Gemini can also provide real-time translated captions, which is a huge help in breaking down language barriers.
Google Workspace Gemini pricing: what’s new in 2025
One of the biggest changes for 2025 is how Google is selling Gemini. It used to be a pretty expensive add-on that a lot of businesses weren’t sure about. Now, Google is bundling Gemini’s features right into most of its standard Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans.
The catch? This new bundle comes with a price hike. For any subscriptions renewing on or after March 17, 2025, the new pricing will kick in automatically. The features are included in Business Standard, Business Plus, and all the Enterprise plans. If you’re on a Business Starter plan, you’ll get very limited access, mostly just the standalone Gemini app with some security features.
Here’s a quick look at how the prices are changing:
| Google Workspace Plan | Old Approx. Price (per user/month) | New Approx. Price with Gemini (per user/month) | Key Gemini Features Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Standard | $12 | $16 | Gemini in Apps, Gemini Advanced, NotebookLM Plus |
| Business Plus | $18 | $22 | Everything in Standard |
| Enterprise Standard | $23 | $27 | Everything in Business Plus |
| Enterprise Plus | $30 | $34 | Everything in Business Plus |
| This decision makes AI available to a lot more people, but it also makes it a mandatory cost for teams on these plans. You can’t opt out of Gemini to keep the old price. |
The real-world limitations of Google Workspace Gemini
While these features sound good on paper, the feedback from people actually using it tells a slightly different story. A quick scroll through discussions on places like Reddit shows that not everyone is sold. Some find it isn’t as capable as dedicated AI tools like ChatGPT, while others just forget to use it in their day-to-day routine.
And this gets to the heart of the matter: Google Workspace Gemini is a general-purpose productivity tool, not a specialized automation machine. It’s designed to help you write an email faster or brainstorm ideas for a slide deck. It’s not built to handle a customer support ticket from start to finish, manage an IT request, or automate an entire business process.
For a customer support team, that difference is huge. Sure, Gemini can summarize a customer’s email, and that’s helpful. But that’s where its job ends. The support agent still has to manually search the knowledge base for the right answer, draft a reply that matches the company’s tone, look up order details, tag the ticket, and close it out. Gemini helps with one small step in a much bigger process; it doesn’t actually solve the problem for you.
This is where AI platforms built for a specific job really come into their own. A tool like eesel AI, for example, is designed from the ground up to handle entire support workflows. It doesn’t just summarize a question; it connects to all your company’s knowledge, from your help center and internal Confluence pages to past support tickets, to provide a complete and accurate answer.
Why specialized AI is better than Google Workspace Gemini for support and IT teams
While Gemini gives one person a boost, specialized AI automates the work an entire team needs to get done. It’s the difference between giving a factory worker a better wrench and giving them a fully automated assembly line. The real goal is to resolve customer issues from end to end, which frees up your human agents for the most complex problems.
Here are a few key things you get with a specialized tool like eesel AI:
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Get up and running in minutes, not months. Setting up enterprise software can be a long, drawn-out process. eesel AI is different. You can connect your help desk, like Zendesk or Freshdesk, and have a working AI agent in a few minutes, all on your own. No mandatory sales calls needed.
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It takes action on its own. Gemini is passive; it waits for you to tell it what to do. An AI Agent from eesel AI can work autonomously. It can read a new ticket, find the right answer, and reply to the customer without a person ever getting involved. It can also do things like tag tickets, close them out, or even look up live order details from your Shopify store.
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It learns from all your knowledge. Gemini can search your Google Drive, but it can’t learn the ins and outs of your business from past customer conversations. eesel AI trains on everything, including thousands of your past support tickets. This helps it learn your specific brand voice and figure out what solutions have actually worked for customers before.
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See your ROI before you launch. It’s tough to put a number on the value of "writing emails 20% faster." With eesel AI’s simulation mode, there’s no guessing. You can test your AI agent on thousands of your past tickets in a safe environment and get a clear forecast of your automation rate and cost savings before you turn it on for live customers.
Is Google Workspace Gemini right for your team?
Google Workspace Gemini is a solid choice for any team looking to give their general productivity a bump. If your employees spend their days in Google Docs and Gmail, they’ll likely find real value in its writing and organizing features.
But for teams with specific, high-volume jobs, like customer support, internal IT, or HR, a generalist tool just won’t cut it. To really automate workflows, lower ticket resolution times, and deliver great service every time, you need a platform that was built for that exact purpose.
Get started with true support automation beyond Google Workspace Gemini
Don’t just help your agents write a little faster. Give them an AI that actually resolves tickets. See how eesel AI can connect with your help desk and knowledge bases to automate your frontline support, freeing up your team to focus on what they do best.
Ready to see how it works?
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Try it yourself: Sign up for a free trial and build your first AI agent in just a few minutes.
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See it in action: Book a demo and we’ll show you how the simulation engine can forecast your potential ROI using your own data.
Frequently asked questions
Unfortunately, no. For any subscriptions on Business Standard, Business Plus, or Enterprise plans renewing after March 17, 2025, the new pricing and bundled Gemini features are mandatory and cannot be separated.
The biggest difference is integration. Google Workspace Gemini is built directly into apps like Docs and Gmail, so it can work with your content, like summarizing a thread you’re reading. Standalone tools don’t have that direct access to your work.
For eligible plans, the features will be rolled out and appear automatically within your Workspace apps after your plan’s renewal date. You won’t need to install or activate anything separately to see features like "Help me write" in Gmail.
No, it’s not designed for that kind of automation. While it can help an agent summarize a ticket or draft a reply, it can’t manage the full workflow of finding an answer in a knowledge base and resolving the ticket on its own.
Yes, Google states that your core Workspace data is not used to train their general models without your permission. Your information is protected by the same security and privacy policies that apply to all of Google Workspace.
For most people, the summarization features in Gmail and Docs offer the biggest immediate benefit. Being able to get the key points from a long email thread or a dense report in seconds is a practical time-saver you can use every day.
