Google is hosting a virtual event tonight to announce that the Gemini assistant will become available within organizations’ Google Workspace subscriptions. It is also launching the Customer Engagement Suite with Google AI, with which organizations can build AI agents that can converse with customers via voice and text.
For a moment, we thought Google was making a very big Gemini announcement, but it concerns the standalone Gemini website and app. This standalone Gemini assistant will be added to Google Workspace subscriptions (Business, Enterprise, and Frontline). Organizations using Google Workspace can now also use the standalone Gemini Assistant. This can be done through the smartphone app or the website.
For the integrated Gemini Assistant in popular applications such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Spreadsheets, organizations still have to sign up for an additional subscription add-on and pay extra. However, Google emphasizes that this paid subscription saves 105 minutes per employee weekly.
Customer Engagement Suite with Google AI
In our view, Google’s more important announcement today is the introduction of the Customer Engagement Suite. This new product is a substantial extension of Google Contact Center AI. Google states that it combines the power of Google Contact Center with Google’s generative AI capabilities and fully integrates with organizations’ existing applications.
Although Google has developed the necessary AI models, the operation of an AI model also depends on an organization’s data. This is because a model needs what is called grounding to understand the context, what the conversations might be about, and what kind of responses are desirable.
An online shoe store is very different from an airline or insurance company. All three have customer service, but the products are completely different. Also, you can exchange shoes, while insurance is complicated to exchange. According to Google, Customer Engagement Suite supports both voice, text, and images. This allows support to be provided via email, chat, and phone.
Furthermore, Google has a complete ecosystem of connectors that allow you to link the system to your CRM or Workforce management solution. Think Salesforce or Workday, for example.
According to Google, customers can interact completely independently with an AI agent without a human being involved. For conversations where a human is present, Agent Assist can analyze the conversation and chat in real time and assist the human agent with possible solutions and answers.
In addition, Google offers Conversational Insights, which are insights into conversations that are taking place or have taken place, how well they were resolved, where improvement can still be made, and what the customer’s emotion are. Was the customer positive or very angry.
Google also immediately presents a broad scale of partners working with Google on this new offering. EasyJet, Verizon, and Marks & Spencer have already signed up and used this solution.
The near future will have to show how good Google’s solution is. In recent weeks, we have seen presentations from Salesforce, ServiceNow, HubSpot, Workday, and several others, all of which are betting on AI agents. Providing such solutions from an existing SaaS solution that already contains the data is a bit easier than the way Google is doing it now. On the other hand, Google does have a huge R&D team for AI; they may have found a good way to integrate it. The development of AI and generative AI continues rapidly, and in the coming months, we will undoubtedly see more innovation.