A Late Christmas Present for Google Workspace Users

Just when you thought the holiday season was over, Google – quietly – rolled out a significant change for Google Workspace customers last week. Google’s AI tools, nicknamed Gemini, will now be available for all Workspace accounts. This change adds AI integrations in Gmail and additional integrations with Drive, Docs, Sheets, etc., that were previously available for an extra monthly fee of $20-30/month.

Before you start thinking this was out of the goodness of their little capitalist hearts, the change also came with a price hike. However, the increase ($1/month annually for the Starter plan; $2/month annually for the Standard plan) is still well below what users would pay to add-on access to these tools. (Full details on the price change and AI coverage specifics are discussed in this Computerworld article.)

What does it mean for your Workspace?

I know some of you are saying, “Wait. Stop. No. I don’t want this, I didn’t ask for it. Google is going to read all my mail.” Your paranoia is learned behavior and I get it. 

If you want to start by understanding Google’s official take on AI Privacy, this is a fairly approachable Help article to get you started.

With that knowledge in hand, let’s talk about how to turn Gemini off, or if you want it, how to make sure it’s being used safely.

If you want to leave it on, I recommend you change the “User Access” setting to uncheck “Allow all users to access the Gemini app, regardless of license.” This is written poorly, but having this checked means that your team can inadvertently use a Google AI tool that is not covered by their license and share business data outside the Workspace privacy and AI training terms (i.e., Google will be able to train their models on that content). If you’re on the bleeding edge of AI, check the “Gemini for Workspace” section to enable alpha features and put yourself up for Google’s experience surveys. And if you’re using AI in your Workspace at all – or are curious about just how much – check the “Gemini Reports” section.

What does it mean for business?

I started this article by calling the change a gift for users and even though it comes at a (literal) cost, I stand by it. 

As of this writing, Microsoft 365 is still charging $30/month for adding MS CoPilot to Office tools and email. Notion’s AI add-on is $8-10/month. Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT still costs at least $20/month if you don’t want your data to be used to train the next generation of model. By including private generative AI interactions in Workspace, Google is coming in with the lowest monthly cost for access to these tools ($7-$8.40/month), both as stand-alone interfaces and integrated with their suite of tools. And oh yeah, that monthly cost also includes those Workspace tools which are pretty nice on their own.

Beyond that benchmark, Google is changing the status quo for AI in productivity tools. Right now, AI is an add-on. By adding it to the core suite, Google is changing the conversation. I don’t think it will be long before Microsoft and Notion have to match. And while AI functionality is available in LOTS of tools (you may have more trouble finding an online tool without AI these days), getting AI in our productivity tools is a big and inevitable boost for business users.