Google Duet AI for Workspace: time for creators to be great in the sheets?

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Google Duet AI – showed at CES2024 – is an AI-powered assistant that is available for Google Workspace users

Duet AI
(Image credit: Future)

Google Duet AI is a new AI-powered assistant that is available for Google Workspace users (Duet AI also attracts an additional charge of $30 per user on top of the Workspace charge). It can help you with a variety of tasks, including generating text, summarizing content, and rewriting sentences. 

As demoed to me at CES 2024, one of the most useful features of Duet AI is its ability to generate text. You can use it to create blog posts, emails, presentations, and now complete spreadsheets aka Google Sheets. Simply type in a few keywords or phrases and Duet AI will generate a complete piece of text, or data sheet for you. You can then edit the text as needed.

Duet AI can also be used to summarize content, and here is where it shines the best. If you have a long article or blog post, Duet AI can help you create a shorter, more concise version.

Duet AI 2

(Image credit: Future)

While Duet isn't new, I wasn't aware that Google has extended Duet AI into Google Sheets, which is actually pretty cool. When presented with a prompt you can ask Google Duet AI to make you a list of something for example. First I asked it to make a list of camera repair shops in New York, sadly it didn't know how to do that for me. The second attempt I asked Google Duet AI to make me a list of quiet workspaces in New York (I should have asked the same for quiet workspaces at CES but I know the result would have been short), and just like that, a list of places was presented with amenities, price, and noise levels.

Then I asked it to make me a list of places to stay on Kodiak Island, Alaska, where I run photo workshops. Again it gave me a great list, although a few obvious places were omitted, on the second attempt it gave me a much better list.

For a bit of a test, I asked Duet to write a review about itself to see if it would make it nice and easy to read, but I found the result was a bit of a disappointment.

I can see why AI has a use when I see it used in this way, very good and while it's hard to fact-check spreadsheets results, it was limited to certain types of functions like lists etc. These are still present in the 'boring side' of the photographer's workflow, so for some there might be an appeal to the investment.

Is AI the future for photography – one of the most popular articles last year asked does AI have an obsession with boobs? 

Dan M Lee
Dan M Lee
Pro Travel and Adventure Photographer, Educator and Author

Dan M Lee is a professional travel and adventure photographer who has shared his knowledge with hundreds of individuals through his in-person wilderness photography training and thousands more through his writing. That includes a book, Creating Photography: The Professional Edge but the way to get involved is to join him on an expedition via kodiakphotoworkshop.com.

Dan has a broad range of photographic interests – and tech enthusiasm – which he can trace back to his first job, while still at school, in a photography shop in England. He has since been lured across the Atlantic to New York City where he undertakes commissions for numerous publishers.

His extensive traveling means he can be out of his home for more than half the year, which has also seen him develop an interest in smart security systems.

He is also a regular on the Not The Gear and The Grumpy Photographer podcasts.