Sundar Pichai : More than 750,000 users now have access to Workspace AI features, which is currently in preview and will be rolled out later this year.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai : More than 750,000 users now have access to Workspace AI features, which is currently in preview and will be rolled out later this year, said on Tuesday (25th July 2023).

Announcing Alphabet's second-quarter results (April-June, 2023), the CEO said that the introduction of Workspace AI features or Duet AI in both Google Cloud and Workspace has “helped businesses collaborate with AI to code, write, and get better insights from data and more”.

In March, Google came up with new AI tools for Google Docs and Gmail to help users write with the help of AI. For example, for Gmail, these tools made users help compose an email by giving contexts, such as client outreach emails and job applications.

Taking things further, the company announced a bunch of generative AI features at Google I/O 2023 in May while also bringing a similar experience for Gmail users on mobile. The company expanded its generative AI features in Workspace, and called it Duet AI.

The company said at that time, the service would now be available to pre-order for Workspace Enterprise customers and other large businesses who can “express interest” through a form, but the general availability “in all regions where Workspace is sold” is coming “later this year”.

Using these language models, Google said, it is enabling new features on Docs, Sheets, and Slides, starting with the ability to ask these apps to create new content from scratch.

John MacDonald, Director, Productivity and Collaboration Practice for Google Workspace, said in Google’s official blog published on 25 July that generative AI as a tipping point that will redefine entire industries and work styles.

He mentioned, “It won’t just accelerate work, it will also transform how work happens. It's about empowering people to work more efficiently, unleash creativity, and produce high-quality content. When we demonstrate the capabilities of Duet AI in Workspace with tools like ‘Help me write’ and ‘Help me visualise’, people instantly come up with countless ways they can bring bold new ideas to life.  

“Ultimately, generative AI is about creating more time for people so they can do what humans do their best — innovate,” he added.

According to Pichai, their generative AI capabilities are also giving the company an “opportunity to win new customers and upsell into its install base of nine million paying Google Workspace customers.”

The CEO mentioned that customers are confidently choosing Workspace because of the “safety and security of their distributed workforces”. He added, “Our AI capabilities are helping us differentiate core products like cybersecurity. We have integrated AI throughout our portfolio, winning organisations like Pfizer, who are using Google Cloud to transform their security operations.”

He further informed that in the first half of 2023, the tech major saw a 35% increase in incident response engagements compared to the same period last year.  

According to Pichai, “The company’s AI capabilities is also expanding our partner ecosystem with hundreds of SaaS (Software as a Service) and ISV (Independent Software Vendor) providers, such as Box, Salesforce, and Snorkel, and the world's largest consulting firms like Accenture and Deloitte.”

“They've collectively committed to train more than 150,000 people on Google Cloud generative AI,” he said.

To be sure, Microsoft 365 Copilot, its AI-powered assistant has a lot of similar features, from the ability to write new paragraphs and documents from scratch to creating or summarising existing data from a document or spreadsheet.  

That said, both companies are placing their bets on AI features and large language models to bolster the future of workplace productivity.

Meanwhile, Alphabet announced revenues in the second quarter on Tuesday (25th July 2023), and reported net profit of $18.4 billion was well ahead of the $16.9 billion expected by Wall Street. Revenue from Google ads, YouTube ads and Google Cloud all beat forecasts. The company said that the “growth is expected to continue as AI tools are implemented and adopted” across businesses in the coming months. The tech giant’s revenue for the quarter stood at $74.6 billion, up 7% year-on-year (YoY) from $69.7 billion in the year-ago period.

Microsoft also announced its fourth and final quarter of its 2023 fiscal financial results, posting a $56.2 billion in revenue and a net income of $20.1 billion during Q4. While revenue is up 8% and net income also increased by 20%, the company reported a slowdown in growth of parts of its business, such as its cloud service Azure, despite the company’s various investments in AI including its partnerships with OpenAI and Meta..

-- Techcircle