Google deployed several new AI features today for its core Workspace products: Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive. These apps now include additional tools powered by GeminiGoogle’s AI assistant. Features range from generating entire drafts of your documents to finding information hidden in the corners of your Drive.
This Google This launch is part of a broader trend in 2026, in which major software developers continue to integrate generative AI-based features into core user experiences, despite the persistent disgust many in the United States have tools like these. Features arrive first to English-speaking Google subscribers AI Pro and Ultra plans.
For Docs, Google added “Help me create,” which attempts to generate complete first drafts of your document, from a prompt, by looking at your emails and files, and searching the Internet for context. This functionality takes over the existing “Help me write» even further in the Chrome browser and portends a future where humans rely on AI to shape their thoughts and share ideas with others.
Sheets and Slides can now create similar full first drafts by leveraging information available on the web and your past data. Another notable new feature in Docs allows users to mimic the structure of previous files when starting a new project. Additionally, Drive now includes AI Insights of your files and more natural language search capabilities.
My testing mainly focused on the new Google Docs tools, which I am most familiar with. To start, I asked Gemini to draw up an itinerary for some St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans. In just a few seconds, Gemini ran through my Gmail and the Web to develop a little plan. I was a little scared when the bot correctly searched my flight reservations to see which city I would be in on March 17th. He also targeted a few well-known Irish pubs where I could have a pint of Guinness. Overall, the results of this test were quick and strong.
Now let’s raise the stakes. How convincing a first draft could be generated by Gemini for my work as software journalist? WIRED editorial standards block the use of Generative AIrightly so, except in situations where it is disclosed and used as an example. Rest assured, everything you read here was scribbled in my notebook before being typed.
Other digital media outlets may not have rigorous standards for using AI, and tools like “Help Me Create” could be imposed on early-career journalists expected to publish many stories each day. I’ve attached the press materials Google provided about today’s launch and asked Gemini for a 600-word how-to story, with first-person information that might help readers better understand the launch.
Naturally, Gemini didn’t really get involved. But, considering how solid his St. Patrick’s Day plan was, I was looking forward to this mimetic blog post being surprisingly smug as well. Are my days as a voice blogger coming to an end? No. Not today, at least.
“With the latest updates to Google Workspace, we see Gemini move beyond a side panel novelty to become a true collaborative partner,” reads part of the AI-written draft. “After testing these features, I discovered that the real power lies not only in “writing the AI”; it also lies in the deep integration of your personal and professional data silos. »
Wow. It’s quite bland, with the writing style of an executive assistant who is afraid to express the slightest opinion. As I generated more early versions of documents like this, I saw that these new features were useful for internal company communications or for marketers looking for additional ways to say buy my stuff. Not so much for personal expression or creative outputs. Even when I uploaded files of my own writing and asked Gemini to copy this cadence, the results still didn’t sound like me.
“If you have access, my best advice is to stop treating Gemini like a search engine and start treating it like a search assistant that already has a copy of your key,” the AI-generated project concludes. Come on, bot. I have given you access to my entire email archive. Let’s make this a little more specific, or at least say something provocative in my voice. (Also, the key to what? My house? I don’t know why a research assistant would need that.)
In addition to generating full drafts, Gemini’s new features can also be used to adjust sections of documents and perform large-scale rewrites based on user suggestions. I asked him to rewrite this first draft in the tone of a WIRED journalist. Almost immediately, Gemini regenerated the draft with new paragraphs that I could choose to accept or reject.
This new version was certainly better, but far from passable as something I would actually write. “The ‘Help Me Create’ engine stands out here,” reads the new AI-written draft. “It’s no longer about generating generic enterprise language, but rather synthesizing live data points in your Drive, Gmail and Chat history.” I wouldn’t be so sure, Gemini!
After a day of experimenting with these new features, particularly in Google Docs, I am torn. These Gemini tools are more powerful than previous versions and have been able to quickly and accurately locate information from personal data sources, like my inbox. Even so, all this AI-generated writing still harbors an undercurrent of blandness, with a paint-by-numbers approach to prose that’s almost impossible to overcome. Well, at least that’s what I wrote down in my notebook.
