• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 21, 2024

Duet AI for Google Workspace became Gemini for Google Workspace on Wednesday, complete with an update that includes a personalized stand-alone experience when logged into Google’s system.

Gemini for Workspace is now available in two subscription plans. The Gemini Enterprise add-on, which replaces Duet AI for Workspace Enterprise, and the Gemini Business add-on for a lower price that provides access for a company’s entire team or organization.

Data privacy might become the most important part of this announcement.

Google, with the two subscription services, has taken a stand on privacy. With the Gemini Business or the Gemini Enterprise plan, Google ensures conversations will not be used for advertising purposes, reviewed by human reviewers or used to train generative machine-learning technologies.

The company made it clear in today’s announcement that all of its commitments to data privacy, confidentiality, and security apply to Gemini for Workspace.

On any given day, Google estimates, millions of small businesses use Google Workspace to connect, create, and collaborate.

Aparna Pappu, general manager and vice president of Google Workspace, in a blog post explained how a marketing manager can use Gemini to help identify topics for an email marketing campaign by analyzing industry trends, product developments, and competitor messaging -- or how a business analyst trying to find growth for her company’s division can use Gemini to identify trends and discover potential new applications for products.

By chatting with Gemini, she can explore and validate promising opportunities, then package the findings into a business proposal for C-level executives.

In a recent survey, 88% of small and medium-sized business customers expressed interest in working with generative AI to assist them with data analysis, task management, email drafting, customer support, and more.

A Gemini Business add-on for existing Workspace subscription customers will give customers access to Gemini in their Workspace apps with the ability to chat with Gemini in the new standalone experience.

Gemini Enterprise, formerly Duet AI for Workspace Enterprise, has the same capabilities, with access to Gemini for heavy users of generative AI. It also includes AI-powered meetings where Gemini can translate captions in more than 100 languages. Soon it will offer a note-taking feature.

Google also is working to bring Gemini for Workspace to education, and plans to share additional information about it in the coming weeks.

The announcement from Google come a day after leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives announced they will form a bipartisan task force to explore potential legislation to address concerns around artificial intelligence. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the task force would be charged with producing a comprehensive report to consider "guardrails" that could safeguard the nation against current and emerging threats.