First up, the Gmail mobile app is getting three new AI-infused features, powered by Gemini. One is “Summarise email,” and as the name suggests, Gemini will now analyse email threads and provide a summarised view directly in the Gmail app. Simply tap the “Summarize” button at the top of your email thread to get summarised highlights. This way, users can save a lot of time and quickly extract the most important information. Google says the new “summarise email” feature will roll out to Workspace Labs users this week and to all Gemini for Workspace customers and Google One AI Premium subscribers next month.

Google is also adding something called “Gmail Q&A,” which allows you to express yourself in completely natural language and ask questions. It is similar to the side panel on the desktop and lets you open a prompt box when you have more specific requests. Many times, there are files buried in your inbox that you need information from, and it’s hard to find them. It could be a lost PDF file or a quarterly report from 2011, for example. Gmail Q&A will be available to Workspace Labs users on mobile and web starting in July.

Next up is “Contextual Smart Reply,” which Google says is a more nuanced version of AI-powered Smart Reply and Smart Compose tools that already exist. With Contextual Smart Reply, users can edit or simply send as-is. Basically, the new AI-powered feature looks at the context of the email and then provides customised smart replies based on the email you are in. Contextual Smart Reply in Gmail will be rolled out to Workspace Labs users on mobile and web starting July.

And that’s not the end of the AI announcements. If you are a Workspace user, Google is adding a sidebar in the side panel of Gmail, Docs, Drive, Slides, and Sheets, powered by the Gemini 1.5 Pro model. The side panel in Workspace apps will summarise, analyse, and generate content, taking advantage of insights from your emails, documents, and everything else. Gemini will find whatever you are looking at from your own data and provide far more insightful responses based on the context of your emails, files, and drive. Adding a Gemini-powered sidebar in Workspace apps is one more way to search for information at your fingertips. For example, if you are planning a trip to Las Vegas and bought tickets to the Sphere, assuming the confirmation and the tickets are in your email. You could ask Gemini, “what time does the Sphere option?” This is more specific ticket-specific information, and Gemini does that well, without you needing to look on the web. Gemini in the Workspace side panel is now available for Workspace Labs and Gemini for Workspace Alpha users. It will be available next month on desktop for businesses and consumers through Gemini for Workspace add-ons and the Google One AI Premium plan.

The writer is attending I/O 2024 at the invitation of Google India.