• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 14, 2023

Google, adding to the parade of tech tools that promise automated content creation in email, is embedding generative AI into Docs and Gmail to help users “get started writing,” the company says.  

Google executives announced the new generative AI capabilities for Workspace in blog posts on Tuesday.

It is not clear whether this tool would be capable of creating mass emails -- it appears to be aimed at more everyday activities. But Gmail's sheer scale would seem to make it a contender. 

"Whether you're a busy HR professional who needs to create customized job descriptions, or a parent drafting the invitation for your child's pirate-themed birthday party, Workspace saves you the time and effort of writing that first version," writes Johanna Voolich Wright, vice president, product, Google Workspace. 

Wright adds that users can "type in a topic you’d like to write about, and a draft will instantly be generated for you.” 

From there, the user can edit or add more personality to the draft. 

Wright says users will have the following capabilities:

• draft, reply, summarize and prioritize their Gmail
• brainstorm, write, proofread, rewrite and revise in Google Docs
• add creative with auto-generated images, audio, and video in Google Slides
• move from data to insights/analysis using auto completion, formula generation, and contextual categorization in Google Sheets
• create new backgrounds and capture notes in Google Meet 
• create workflow for tasks using Chat
  

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, says the company will roll out the new features to testers in the coming weeks.

Google is also debuting these capabilities:

Generative AI support in Vertex AI — "We are now providing foundation models, initially for generating text and images, and over time with audio and video," Kurian writes. He adds that Google Cloud customers will have the ability to discover models and create and modify prompts and use their own data and applications to fine-tune and applications.

Generative AI App Builder — This connects “conversational AI flows with search experiences and foundation models to help companies build generative AI applications," Kurian says.

Expansion of New AI Partnerships and programs, with "specialized programs for technology partners, AI-focused software providers and startups," Kurian writes.

Google is not the only firm to be thinking along these lines. Microsoft earlier this month announced a product called Copilot that  marketers can use to gain "inspiration for fresh email campaign content based on a simple request,” writes Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, business applications for Microsoft.

Lamanna says Copilot makes suggestions based on key topics entered by the marketer, with "the organization’s existing marketing emails, as well as from a range of internet sources to increase the relevance of generated ideas.” Moreover, marketers can “curate highly personalized and targeted customer segments by having a dialogue with their customer data platform using natural language,” Lamanna adds.

In addition, Salesforce has launched Einstein GPT, a generative AI tool for CRM that it claims can generate:

• Personalized emails for salespeople to send to customers, 
• Specific responses for customer service professionals
• Targeted content for marketers
• Auto-generated code for developers.