Google NEXT 2024 Roundup
April 29, 2024Last week, the Damson Cloud Team attended Google NEXT hosted in Las Vegas. Google’s showpiece event, it’s often used to release large updates in Google Cloud and Google Workspace, so naturally we had to be there to be among the first to hear them as well as meet up with other partners, vendors and Google Reps and Execs that were attending too.
As you’d expect (if you’ve had your ear to the ground) Google were all in with Gemini AI. Being that this was their showpiece event, we were excited to learn about the new developments as well as find out about any new releases and the roadmap for 2024. With other competitive products on the market, it’s important for Google to stay ahead of the curve with Generative AI and some of the features they’ve got set to release, look to enhance productivity and make Google Workspace even better for businesses that adopt Gemini in the future.
The Damson Cloud team at Google NEXT:
Below we’ll discuss some of the more interesting updates we saw as part of the 2 day event.
Google Vids
Perhaps a surprise to many was the announcement of Google Vids, which is a versatile video generator that will sit inside Google Workspace. What this will do for users is create footage that can be used in Google Docs and Google Slides (as well as externally) based on prompts. Google claims it is a “video, writing, production and editing assistant all in one”.
What this could provide businesses, is a much easier way of getting “stock” footage for their product or service and that could serve to make their offering look professional (as well as unique) as it’ll be driven entirely by generative AI. Once users choose a style it will put together a first draft from suggested scenes from stock videos, images and background music. This will feature real-time collaboration, allowing teams to put together great looking footage that could really allow them to stand out from the competition or tell a story to internal teams. Vids is being released to Workspace Labs in June, with a full rollout towards the end of 2024 slated.
AI Meetings and Messaging add-ons
Staying with AI, Google also announced that some of the Gemini features in Meet and Chat, that will be beneficial to businesses, will be available as a standalone product. This add-on can be combined with most Workspace plans at $10 per user, per month. This means that those looking for features such as “take notes for me”, instead of writing notes on a Google Meet, and “translate for me” (coming in June), that opens up cross-language barriers for companies around the world, will be available without the need for a full Gemini subscription. Later this year there will also be the release of automatic translation in Google Chat and conversation summaries which further seeks to improve the user experience in both of these Google Workspace applications.
Voice prompting and instant polish in Gmail
Also announced was the improvement of the “help me write” feature in Gmail with Gemini for Google Workspace as it will be possible to send emails by voice prompting within Gmail. This means for those on the move, you can create a prompt using the voice to text feature on the mobile app to quickly enter a prompt to generate text. This can then further be improved with the “polish” features that can set a tone for the email, improve the language used and expand out the email into something more professional for the end user to receive.
Increased member capacity in Chat
By increasing the member capacity up to 500,000 Google is providing a much requested improvement to the Chat functionality, with an upper limit now that many businesses would struggle to achieve! Having that functionality means that large size businesses can include Chat participants without a worry about the capacity of the space they’re using. Also mentioned was the interoperability of Slack and Teams by working with a third party (Mio) making it easy for businesses to utilise Google Chat without the worry that other users could be on different applications.
AI Security add-on
Google has always prioritised security, being part of a cloud infrastructure since its inception, Google Workspace takes advantage of zero-trust principles in addition to AI-powered threat defences against spam, phishing attempts and malware. Announced at Google NEXT, Google is now blocking an additional 20% more spam and can evaluate 1,000 times more user reports daily.
Because security is such a large focus for businesses, there is also the need for businesses to classify and protect sensitive files within organisations in Google Drive. This can now be done automatically with an AI security add-on ($10 per user per month). What this does is utilises a trained model to identify, evaluate and protect new and existing files on Drive for all employees including Frontline Workers.
Tabs and personalisation in Docs
Looking too at Google Docs, utilising tabs to help streamline information organisation within a single document now eliminates the need for multiple document links or tedious searches through Drive. Additionally, they’re simplifying document personalisation by enabling full-bleed cover images that span seamlessly across browser windows. Expect both enhancements to roll out in the next few weeks for general availability.
New Building Blocks and Notifications in Sheets
Showing an upcoming tables feature set to be available in the near future, this effortlessly streamlines data formatting and organisation with its improved streamlined design. Users will be able to choose from an array of templates, ranging from project management to event planning, eliminating the need to start from scratch with every single spreadsheet. Additionally, Google is rolling out conditional notifications, triggering automatic alerts based on custom conditions such as changes in status fields.
Summary
Google NEXT is always good to attend for us at Damson Cloud as it keeps us at the forefront of the latest updates and provides us with the ability to see these bigger updates in real time, delivered by Google themselves. As you’ll have read above, AI is very much at the forefront of the Google Workspace offering right now, with Gemini being a focus and with updates such as certain features being available as standalone products, it means businesses can choose elements that would benefit them most if perhaps a full subscription isn’t something on the horizon right now. We’re excited to see these updates roll out in the future.
To speak to us about Google Workspace or Gemini, please do get in touch at:
