Google Workspace Labs is a Google’s program that lets you to try out new experimental features of Google Workspace. These features are not yet fully released, but you can use them to get an idea of what’s planned for the future.
One of the most exciting features of Google Workspace is AI content generation. You can now leverage the power of generative AI to generate text in Google Docs. You just need to specify what you want and then it will take care of you.
You can now summarize text, generate short paragraphs & essays, generate social media captions, job descriptions and more right inside Google Docs. No need to rely on ChatGPT or Bing AI now when you have Workspace Labs.
Here are some features you can find in Google Workspace Labs:
- Smart Canvas: A new way to work in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides that makes it easier to collaborate and get things done.
- Suggested replies: Smart replies that help you save time when you’re emailing or chatting.
- Inline translation: Translate text as you type in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
- Live captions: See captions in real time as you’re watching a video in Google Meet.
- Background blur: Blur your background while video chatting in Google Meet.
In this post, I will be only focusing the AI content generator. It can do wonders. And not just generating content but you can rephrase it, shorten it all using the AI itself.
How to Enable Workspace Labs for your Google Account?
By default, nobody has access to Workspace Labs in their Google account. That’s because it is in private beta. You will have to request access first, before you get to use it. Alos, they are giving out access to Workspace Labs in US only for now.
So, if you are in US then you can follow this link and then sign up for the beta. After signing up, you just wait for them to approve you and enable access for you.
I am sure in a couple of days; they will send you an invite to your email. The invitation email looks like this.
Once you are approved, just open Google Docs and then you will be greeted with the welcome message from Workspace Labs, and it looks like as shown below.
If you get an invitation as above, then it is good news as you can just go ahead and try generative AI in Google Docs. For me, it took 3 days for the invitation to come after I applied for the beta access.
Using Workspace Labs in Docs to Generate Content:
Close the welcome page and then in the Google Docs, you will see a magic wand like icon. Use it to open a popup and specify what you want to generate. Let’s try generating social media captions. So, enter the prompt and then click the Create.
After a few seconds, it will give you a list of social media captions that you can use. Just click Insert and then those will be added to the Docs. After that, you can make some changes in them if you want to.
The Workspace Labs wand button will always be available in the border line of the page, and you can activate it from here whenever you want it.
You can use it to generate paragraphs and short essays on any topic as well. For example, this one here on Italian renaissance.
Before inserting the generated text in Docs, you can perform some extra actions. For example, you can rephrase the content, formalize it, and even shorten it. Let’s try to shorten the content it generated. It will take a couple of seconds to process it and will generate the final result.
One of the specializations of Workspace Labs is the job description generation. It is a really good option for recruiters. So, try generating one now.
It will automatically give you a detailed job description with requirements and experience details added as bullet points. You can see the results it generated for a “content writer” job description.
In this way, you can use this new powerful Google Workspace Labs to generate content right inside Google Docs and for free. And if you’d like to opt out of Workspace Labs then you can simply go to Tools menu and select “Opt out of Labs” option.
Closing thoughts:
AI content generator of Workspace Labs is powerful as it can high-quality content quickly and easily. With its intuitive UI and powerful features, you can create anything from blog posts and articles to e-books and of course the social media posts. It is very creative in writing social media captions that you use for your Instagram and TikTok posts. I also liked the fact that they have included a rephraser too and the tone changer.
