Google has started integrating AI into your spreadsheets

While many other business productivity suites are introducing new tools for automating clerical work with a few short instructions, Google Workspace apps continue to acquire generative AI improvements. The search engine giant is getting ahead of itself by letting vetted testers use the AI writing assistance in Google Docs and Gmail since March, just like how it initially handled the Bard deployment. Since then, artificial intelligence has appeared in other Workspace applications like Slides, except for Sheets, where it may have a profound impact. Now that Google has started integrating Duet AI into your spreadsheets, that is starting to change.

You should now have access to Sheets’ new sidebar, which houses its AI sidekick, if you previously applied for Google Workspace Labs and were approved. It does exactly what it says on the tin: organizes your spreadsheet or generates a computation for you under the “Help me organize” sidebar.

Following the announcement of Sheets‘ AI superpowers at the I/O conference last month, Google stated in a tweet that this feature is currently rolling out. You can enter your goals in the text field, and Duet AI will create a unique template for you to use right away.

A table with suggested categories is automatically created when a prompt such as “Agenda for a one-day sales kickoff event with session descriptions and status” is entered. A range of use cases, including product roadmaps and budgets, benefit from the AI.

By integrating this kind of time-saving AI wizardry into Sheets, Google hopes to show how keen it is to overtake competitors like Microsoft in the race for artificial intelligence. Google has been rushing to integrate AI into its services ever since ChatGPT gained notoriety last year and Microsoft integrated OpenAI’s AI chatbot into Bing early this year.

There are risks associated with racing to integrate AI into text-generating software applications like Docs and Gmail, including the presentation of infamously erroneous material with great confidence. Google, though, emphasizes that its AI features are intended to supplement human abilities rather than take their place. In fact, after adding any AI-generated information to a spreadsheet, you may edit and customize it.