Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Written by: Martin Dale Bolima, Tech Journalist, AOPG

Google is putting Artificial Intelligence (AI) to full use, and it recently highlighted at the Google Cloud AI Media Summit how it is leveraging this game-changing innovation not only in Google Workspace but also in securing the Google ecosystem and driving security programs.

Darryl McKinnon, Director, Google Workspace, Asia Pacific, at Google Cloud, spoke in detail about Duet AI in Google Workspace and delved into the different ways this AI assistant acts as part of a team—and an agent of quick, positive change, tailored to an enterprise’s needs.

To prove his point, McKinnon detailed three high-impact use cases of Duet AI in Google Workspace in three critical facets of any business—increase seller productivity (sales), enable efficient and creative content creation (marketing), and ensure exceptional customer experiences (customer service).

In particular, McKinnon talked about five tasks Duet AI can help with:

1. Help me write.
2. Help me organise.
3. Help me visualise.
4. Help me connect.
5. Help me create an app.

“Organisations like [Google Workspace] because they allow their employees to work more efficiently, and we’re very flexible in how we do that… [but] we’re not replacing people. We’re actually helping people. We replace some of the mundane tasks every day and allow them to focus on more creative work or more important issues they have,” McKinnon pointed out.

Creating Value Using Duet AI

McKinnon, with the help of the Google Singapore team, even conducted a hands-on demo for the journalists invited to the summit, allowing them to collaborate with the hosts, with one another, and generative AI to create a mock marketing plan in less than an hour using Duet AI in Google Workspace.

The demo highlighted the generative capabilities of Duet AI, from writing simple text (help me write, like thank-you and acknowledgement letters, to more complex content (help me visualise), such as stunning visuals. Duet AI also helps users keep better track of their content and enables seamless collaboration, whether synchronous or asynchronous (help me organise, help me connect), before facilitating the easy creation from scratch of an app where needed (help me create an app)—and without coding.

“When you think about your average day, you don’t work in silos. You work across different technologies to get your job done in your daily life,” said McKinnon as he talked about the integration of Duet AI across the Google Workspace spectrum, spanning Gmail and Google Docs to Google Sheets and Google Slides and all the way to Google Meet and Spaces.

And the point in all this? To get things done in the most efficient of ways possible.

Keeping Data Safe and Secure

Of course, getting work done using Duet AI in Google Workspace presupposes the need to input data—lots and lots of it, including even the sensitive kind for AI tuning and grounding to be possible. And that can be an iffy proposition for some given the threat-filled cyber landscape of today.

While that is understandable, McKinnon assures everyone that Google Workspace is a safe haven for customer data.

“Data in Google Workspace is private to you and only you, and it’s fully secure…,” said McKinnon. It’s one of the questions customers ask us…, but your data is private, protected, and secure [in Google Workspace].”

Mark Johnston, Office of the CISO, Google Cloud Asia Pacific, concurred and spoke about the steps Google Cloud is taking to make sure customer data is kept private, protected, and secure in the Google platform.

But first, he outlined the three biggest cybersecurity challenges of the last decade: Growing threats, endless toil, and lack of talent. These challenges, according to Johnston, can be addressed by stopping threats, reducing toil, and scaling talent—three things Google is doing.

Google, according to Johnston, is also leveraging the latest technologies, like post-quantum encryption technology and—of course!—AI, to keep the platform as safe, and as foolproof as possible and protect customer data. These technologies, Johnston points out, are too advanced for the average enterprise to fully grasp and implement, which is why Google Cloud is taking point in doing so, and that includes keeping the Google Workspace platform safe and secure.

Useful Across Verticals, but Is a Challenge Nonetheless

The summit concluded with discussions on how Duet AI for Google Workspace can be used across verticals and for various purposes and tasks, such as in creating product portfolios and inventory management in retail or simplifying the customer experience in online shopping, as used car seller Cho Chot in Vietnam did over the past few years to boost earnings and market share.

But, as the end-of-day hands-on sessions proved, harnessing the power of generative AI in Duet AI is an art in of itself—something that requires some getting used to, a lot of training, and quite a lot of trial and error particularly in prompting, or giving clear, specific instructions for the generative AI to work its magic.

It is not easy, to say the least. But, when done right, it is easy to see why the generative AI-powered Duet AI for Google Workspace can be such a game-changer in the world of work.

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