✨Tutorial: How to Better Integrate Gemini with Gmail

Welcome to AutomatED: the newsletter on how to teach better with tech.

Each week, I share what I have learned — and am learning — about AI and tech in the university classroom. What works, what doesn't, and why.

In this fortnight’s Premium edition, I explain how to use Gemini — Google’s competitor to ChatGPT — in Google Workspace. Natively, there are a few options, but each leaves something to be desired, so I show you how you can take it to the next level.

I set out to write a comprehensive Tutorial on using Google’s Gemini for Workspace — previously called “Duet AI” (click this link if you have no clue what is going on at Google lately) — in Gmail and Slides to increase higher educators’ productivity.

If we could all save a few hours a week responding to student emails or producing presentations, that could really add up!

Originally, this Tutorial was slated to come out earlier this week, but then Google officially announced Gemini for Workspace for “teams of all sizes” on Wednesday, and I wanted to confirm that the relevant functionality did not change. Unfortunately, it didn’t, at least for now.

I ended up disappointed by Gemini in Slides, as it is limited to artistic image production, and it isn’t useful for most higher education users (who tend to need diagrams and flowcharts, which we have covered previously).

After much experimentation, here is the takeaway on Gmail: for most professors, learning specialists, and administrators, Gemini for Workspace in its native form in Gmail is not as useful as it will be in the future, as it is not yet sufficiently integrated with Docs and cannot learn from your past emails. However, as I explain, Gemini can be made more useful for Gmail by integrating Docs with Gmail.

If you receive a lot of emails that can be answered by your Docs — or by content you could place in your Docs — you will definitely want to read this.

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