- You can now interact with data and create entire dashboards with Gemini in Sheets
- Google Meet's AI summaries now extend to in-person and third-party conferencing platforms
- AI has allowed Google to make it even quicker to move from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace
Google Cloud just held its biggest event yet, but with 260+ announcements across the entire portfolio at Google Cloud Next 2026, many of the smaller but no less important Google Workspace updates flew under the radar.
In a 'one last thing'-like blog post, the company detailed a number of less headline-worthy improvements it's rolled out to its Workspace online apps to make Gemini even more useful.
With the changes, Gemini is transitioning from a generative tool to produce new content to an agentic assistant that can interact with the context of your documents and carry out some functionalities autonomously.
Google Workspace just got these updates
Starting with one of the most commonly used Workspace apps, Sheets now lets users analyze their data and produce dashboards more conversationally.
The company also claimed 110 million Google Meet attendees have used 'Take Notes For Me' in the last month – an 8.5x growth compared with last year – so it's now making AI-generated summaries and action items available beyond the four walls of Meet, including in-person meetings and calls on other platforms like Zoom and Teams.
And as for organizations, Gemini Enterprise customers will be able to create brand-new documents in line with their brand and requirements with new 'Canvas Mode'. With a detailed prompt, Gemini can fetch data and context from the web and other Workspace locations to generate full presentations and documents that are as editable as human-created ones.
Finally, Google Cloud's stance against Microsoft didn't go amiss at its annual conference. Having previously lodged a complaint against Microsoft's cloud practices, Google now says it's up to 5x quicker for M365 customers to migrate to Workspace thanks to some under-the-hood interoperability improvements like an AI-powered Office macro converter.
