The rise of ChatGPT has sparked a global craze for AI tools. Possessing exceptional language comprehension and generation abilities, capable of engaging in natural and fluent conversations with users, AI chatbots can be widely applied across various fields including education, healthcare, customer service, e-commerce, financial services, and more. They help businesses improve efficiency, provide better customer experiences, and reduce the burden of manual work.
Not to be outdone by ChatGPT, Google, in addition to officially globally releasing its AI chat assistant “Bard” in May of this year, recently announced integration with Google Workspace services. This integration allows Bard to directly search through Gmail, docs, Drive, and other data of Google Workspace users to generate responses, as well as provide automated writing functions, assisting in enhancing enterprise productivity and collaboration efficiency.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What is Bard? Get to Know Google’s Brand New Generative AI Chatbot
Bardis an AI chatbot tool developed by Google, aimed at providing users with authentic and natural language responses in the most human-like conversation possible. Based on a large language model (LLM), Bard utilizes Google’s latest large natural language model, the PaLM 2 Model, which possesses powerful language inference and encoding capabilities.
Different from typical search engines, Bard integrates natural language processing and machine learning, allowing users to use more natural language queries instead of keyword-based searches. This enables Bard to provide users not just with a list of answers but with complete response content that can help users address subsequent questions. Additionally, Bard supports shared conversations and double-check functions, enabling users to fact-check the generated results.
Bard supports over 40 languages including Traditional Chinese, German, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic, and can generate various types of content such as poetry, code, scripts, music compositions, emails, and more. Users only need to input their questions or queries into the conversation box, and Bard, through its integrated web browsing feature, provides users with comprehensive information and insights. For instance, users can directly ask Bard questions like ‘Which is easier to learn, piano or guitar? How much practice time does each require?’ or ‘Explain the latest discoveries from NASA’s Webb Space Telescope.’ These are the type of questions without standard answers. By leveraging AI’s search capabilities, Bard transforms complex or diverse data and viewpoints into easily understandable content, facilitating quicker absorption of relevant knowledge.
Bard Successfully Integrates Google Workspace Services, Further Enhancing Office Efficiency
In mid-September of this year, Google announced the official launch of Bard Extensions. This enhancement transforms Bard from merely searching data and answering questions on the internet, similar to ChatGPT, to a system capable of cross-service information integration. It now combines user data from Google Workspace, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Flights, and other sources. Leveraging a user’s personal Google service usage history, it provides personalized responses tailored to individual users.
Bard Extension is one of the official extensions within Google Workspace, allowing users to access Bard’s support services within Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Meet. It assists users in completing various work tasks such as composing emails, creating presentations, editing documents, translating languages, and more, ultimately enhancing work efficiency and productivity.
Providing Powerful Search and Organizational Features to Help Effectively Manage Documents in Google Workspace
Through its powerful language processing capabilities, Bard can rapidly analyze and accurately comprehend various document records of users on Google Workspace. It can provide the most precise search results and organize files based on search criteria. For example, when a user requests Bard to search for the term ‘meetings,’ Bard automatically analyzes all related emails and files in Gmail or Google Drive, placing relevant file information at the forefront and marking them as important items. This successfully saves time and effort spent on data retrieval or organization.
Providing Smart Collaboration Assistance to Make Team Communication Easier and Smoother
Imagine you’re collaborating with other team members to complete a report but feeling unsure about fairly and appropriately assigning tasks. With Bard’s assistance, users can now directly interact with Bard to request the system to confirm task details and distribute responsibilities based on information in Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides. Bard can also calculate reasonable deadlines or collaboration suggestions, reducing communication costs for the team and enhancing collaboration efficiency.
Furthermore, users can employ Bard for automating repetitive tasks such as form filling, report generation, and data tracking. This helps save more time and allows individuals to focus their energy on tasks that require creativity and strategic thinking.
Providing Personalized Editing Suggestions to Make Writing and Content Creation More Engaging
In offering creative suggestions, Bard can proactively recommend suitable writing styles or creative elements based on its understanding of textual content, making documents more engaging and aligned with the user’s preferences. For instance, when drafting a news article, Bard can generate textual content using various writing styles like humor, seriousness, or narrative, catering to the user’s preferences. It also suggests media elements such as images, charts, or videos to enhance the richness and vividness of the news article.
In document editing and suggesting revisions, Bard can assist users by checking spelling, grammar, and factual errors in their documents. It provides suggested edits, adds supporting evidence, or suggests changes to the report’s structure. Moreover, when users need feedback for a specific document or report, Bard can examine the content, offering clear and constructive modification suggestions for visual layout, organizational coherence, and tone/style within the document.
Three-step Quick Guide: Enable Bard Support Services for your Google Workspace Immediately
By default, Google Workspace doesn’t automatically enable Bard’s services. To activate Bard within Google Workspace, users must have Google Workspace administrator privileges and follow these steps:
Step One: Visit the Google Admin Console
To initiate the activation of Bard, users need to navigate to the Google Workspace page. Locate the ‘Google Admin Console’ button in the top right corner, click on it, and log in using Google Workspace administrator credentials.
Step Two: Click on ‘Additional Google services’
Upon entering the administrator page, firstly, click on ‘APPS’ in the left-hand sidebar, locate and click on ‘Additional Google services’ in the list.
Step Three: Enable Google Bard functionality
Locate ‘Bard’ in the ‘Additional Google services’ list, click on the adjacent ‘Enable’ button to activate Bard’s service features for your Google Workspace account.
As an intelligent assistant powered by Google AI, Bard deeply integrates with Google Workspace, assisting in tasks like writing, editing, optimizing, designing, and analyzing, significantly enhancing organizational productivity and creativity. If your company hasn’t started using Google Workspace yet, feel free to contact Microfusion Technology, an elite Google Cloud partner. Microfusion offers exclusive pre-sales consulting and professional technical support for purchasing Google Workspace, solving any migration concerns and various usage-related challenges you might encounter.
This article is translated and rewritten from the official Google Workspace blog: Source 1, Source 2
