When various artificial intelligence (AI) features were announced by Google recently, people's worries were that their work would be wiped out. This worry is not just paranoia due to a lack of understanding of technology. Every time a transformative technology is introduced in human civilization, there are bound to be careers affected. The introduction of machines to produce cloth sacrificed workers who produced cloth manually. Internet publication advertising is at the expense of print media.
Duet AI is the artificial intelligence used by Google in their Google Workspace product. At this point according to Google they have over 3 billion Google Workspace users with 10 million being paid customers. This makes it the largest productivity software platform in the world.
A few days ago I was invited by Google to try for myself some Duet AI that is given to paid customers only in advance. Based on these few hours of experience, I can say that the introduction of AI can help reduce the time spent on trivial tasks and increase productivity but with a caveat.
What is Duet AI
Duet AI is an AI developed specifically to help work organizations streamline tasks in the office. Through integration with Google Workspace, Duet can help compose emails, generate summaries of documents received in Gmail, generate images just by writing, replace yourself in Meet and more.
Google Docs With AI Duet
In Google Docs use Duet to create ideas based on documents received in Gmail. In the demo I tried, I received an email about a campaign for a coffee shop that needed to be completed before lunchtime. Some points that the client wanted were listed in the email.
Among the instructions given is to create a slogan for the social media campaign that will be carried out. Ideas on how promotion can be done by targeting certain groups can also be done. I just entered the prom "generate 10 slogans for a coffee campaign based on emails received from X".
In less than a minute 10 slogans are generated by Duet AI in Docs. Prom can then be further detailed such as using more youthful, serious language or choose "I'm feeling lucky" for ideas that are more outside the box. The prom for the campaign is detailed so that it overlaps with the Deepavali festival that will be celebrated in the near future.
Among the campaign recommendations given are using social media, giving special coupons that need to be redeemed through the official account of the coffee company and many more.
My only criticism is that the answers given are a bit generic for a campaign. But Duet AI was not developed to replace human workers and works as a personal assistant. All suggestions and ideas generated then need to be refined by the employees themselves to be more compatible with real world needs. Duet AI generates the outline and human workers then use personal expertise to produce a more perfect final document.
Google Slides With AI Duet
Based on the ideas he generated above, I was then given the task of producing a slide that needed to be presented to the client. The Google Slide application is used. A good slide needs an eye-catching image. Here Duet AI is used to generate images that can be used in slides.
Because I'm producing a campaign for a coffee shop, I'm generating an image of a cup of coffee and some of the menus to be offered. Like Bing Chat and Midjourney, Duet AI will generate four images based on the entered prom. The image generating box is placed in the upper right corner.
One advantage of Duet AI image generator is that there is a menu of image styles to be generated such as watercolor painting, photo realistic, cyberpunk, sketch, dab vector and more. The generated image can then be pulled from the image generation tab directly onto the required slide.
Google Meet With Duet AI
One demo that was not shown live but only in video form is Meet dengan Duet. There are many relevant features shown, one of which is that Duet will record important information that has been discussed by the teleconference participants. With this note anyone who is late to the discussion can see the list of topics they missed.
Another feature is to join the Meet session using an avatar as a replacement named Attend For Me. A static picture will be a self-replacement and after the teleconference session, the notes taken will be sent to the e-mails of those who were unable to participate in the session.
The ability to generate background images can also be used in Meet. Enter the prom and the generated image can then be directly used as a unique background.
Google Sheets And Produce Apps With AI Duet
Another feature that I haven't had time to use in the series involves Sheets. The example given is that a company's financial report attached to Gmail can be analyzed by Duet. Give instructions to list the most profitable, profitable products or when is the best time to offer a promotion for example and Sheets will generate the relevant paperwork.
Then based on the information in Sheets earlier, Duet AI can generate applications without the user having to learn about programming languages. Instruct Duet to create a store inventory application that provides notifications when stock is low or sales are unsatisfactory.
The promise of Google
What I find quite interesting is that Google promises to ensure that every image and content generated by its intellectual property is owned by the customer. This is in contrast to competing generative AI whose intellectual property cannot be held by anyone.
Google Workspace with Duet AI is now offered to Google Workspace customers in several major markets around the world including Malaysia. I understand that at this time language support is still limited to English.
From what I can tell Duet's capabilities are similar to the majority of first generation generative AI. Not amazing enough to replace humans but useful enough to help speed up the process of doing office work and being productive. Whether you are ready or not, menial tasks will be taken over by AI. Humans will only be useful if they collaborate with AI in the near future.