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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Amanda Caswell

Google just launched a new AI agent that runs your inbox: Here’s what CC actually does

Gmail app on iPhone in woman's hand.

Meet CC, a new experimental AI agent from Google Labs designed to proactively manage your day by pulling context from your Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and the web. Without a prompt, the agent shows up in your inbox with a daily briefing; you can also task the agent to handle some of the mental load you usually carry yourself.

Early access begins today (December 16) starting with Google AI Ultra subscribers. You also join the the waitlist for CC.

What is Google’s CC AI agent?

CC is an email-based AI agent built on Google’s Gemini models. Once connected to your Google account, it analyzes your schedule, emails and documents to create a personalized daily summary called Your Day Ahead.

Rather than opening an app or starting a chat, CC communicates primarily through your email. Each morning it sends daily highlights including:

  • Upcoming meetings and calendar conflicts
  • Important emails you might miss
  • Documents related to your day’s events
  • Suggested priorities and next steps

You can also reply directly to CC’s emails to ask follow-up questions, request changes or get help drafting responses. Because of the lack of prompting, Google hopes that it makes CC feel less like a tool you have to remember to use and more like something that works quietly in the background.

What CC can actually do (and what it can’t yet)

(Image credit: Unsplash)

Let's be clear, this is not full task automation. At launch, CC focuses on summarization, prioritization and light action support. This means, daily briefings in the form of a single email that synthesizes your day across Gmail and Calendar.

Plus, CC can do other tasks when users need it, such as understanding which emails and documents matter for today, suggest email drafts and surface relevant links.

Like other Gemini tools, the more you interact with CC, the better it tailors future summaries.

Keep in mind, there are things that CC can't do yet such as autonomously send emails, reschedule meetings on its own, replace Google Tasks or Keep and, it's not a conversational chatbot interface.

In other words, CC is deliberately scoped. It’s designed to reduce cognitive overload, not take full control.

Final thoughts

CC fits neatly into Google’s broader AI strategy of ambient assistant. For those concerned about privacy since CC connects directly to personal data, According to Google Labs, CC uses your Gmail, Calendar and Drive content only to provide the service. It does not use the data to train Google’s core AI models and operates under existing Google account security and permissions.

As with all Labs experiments, Google is upfront that this is an early test and user feedback will shape where it goes next. If you want to give CC a try now, join the waitlist; access is rolling out gradually.

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