Google brings the office worker’s dream closer: workspace intelligence as a unified AI layer for Gmail, Drive, Docs, and Chat

At Google Cloud Next ’26 in Las Vegas, Google unveiled Workspace Intelligence — a new semantic layer for Google Workspace that brings emails, chats, and files into a single intelligent system.

This is more than just a set of features. The platform can now understand relationships between documents, projects, colleagues, and organizational knowledge. At the center of the update is Ask Gemini in Chat, which Google describes as a “command line for all your work” directly within the chat interface. It creates daily briefings with priority tasks, tracks unread discussions, generates documents and presentations, schedules meetings, and finds files based on natural-language descriptions.

Gemini now also integrates with external tools such as Asana, Jira, and Salesforce, allowing users to work with them without leaving the chat. Gmail introduces AI Inbox and AI Overviews in search: the former prioritizes incoming emails, while the latter synthesizes key points from multiple threads in response to a single query.

In Google Drive, the new Drive Projects feature enables centralized organization of files and emails around specific initiatives. AI Overviews and Ask Gemini are also now available there. Google Docs gains the ability to generate infographics from data and automatically refine documents based on comments.

Google Sheets can now create and edit spreadsheets using natural language, combining data from files, emails, and the web. Meanwhile, Google Slides enables full presentation generation from a single prompt, automatically adhering to corporate templates.

Workspace Intelligence is built on the same secure infrastructure as Google Workspace: data is not reviewed by humans, not used for advertising, and not used to train models without administrator consent. The platform also supports data residency in the U.S. and EU, as well as client-side encryption.

Google also introduced Rapid Enterprise Migration - a tool that accelerates migration from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace by up to five times, including for complex legal and financial workflows. This move intensifies competition with Microsoft: according to the company, active usage of Microsoft 365 Copilot among users with access to multiple platforms has dropped to 8% - one of the lowest figures among major AI services.