Google Brings Conversational AI Search to Gmail

Google is giving Gmail users a way to avoid manually searching their inbox, according to a Thursday (Sept. 3) company blog post.

Gmail Live is part of a larger series of new voice artificial intelligence offerings for Gmail, Google Docs and the note-taking tool Google Keep that the tech giant took live, per the post.

“As technology evolves, so does the way we get things done,” the post said. “That’s why we’re bringing Gemini Audio models to your favorite Workspace products to help you tackle daily tasks using just your voice.”

For Gmail users, that means avoiding manually combing through emails, according to the post. Instead, users can employ conversational search to ask questions like, “What’s my flight’s gate number?”

With Docs Live, users can “engage in real-time conversation … to build structured, context-aware documents on the fly,” rather than “staring at a blank page,” per the post.

“Docs Live acts as your thought partner and co-writer to help you get to a first draft faster using your voice,” the post said. “Just talk, and Docs Live handles the heavy lifting, organizing your thoughts, structuring your document, and with your permission, pulling relevant details directly from your Gmail, Drive, Chat and the broader web.”

Lastly, the new changes turn Keep from a place where users note a quick idea to a way to structure and refine ideas through conversation, according to the post.

“Go ahead and brain dump,” the post said. “Keep’s new voice feature understands your stream of consciousness and processes it in the background, turning your thoughts into structured lists and notes without you having to type a single word.”

The new features are debuting this week, available in Gmail and Keep for Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra subscribers, and in Docs for Pro and Ultra subscribers. All of these features are set to be rolled out soon for Google Workspace business customers, according to the post.

Meanwhile, the rise of conversational AI often collides with the messier reality that “B2B operations are rarely as clean as a conversation, and voice-enacted, autonomous workflows run straight into it,” PYMNTS reported July 24.

“B2B workflows depend on fragmented data, established approval rules, contractual obligations and software systems that rarely work together,” the report said. “An AI agent may understand that a buyer wants to change a supplier, but completing the request could require data from procurement, finance, compliance, inventory and risk management systems.”