Google Gemini is Google’s AI assistant, and also the name of the family of Google models behind it. Google says more than 1 billion people use the Gemini app every month.
For a business on Google Workspace, Gemini mostly turns up inside apps staff already have open, from Gmail to Sheets. Developers reach the same models through the Gemini API.
Which Workspace plans include Gemini
On Google’s Workspace plans, Business Starter includes Gemini in Gmail and basic access to the Gemini app. Business Standard and above add Gemini in Docs and Sheets, along with expanded access to the app. Enterprise adds data loss prevention and enterprise data regions.
Gemini inside Gmail, Drive and Sheets
In Gmail, Gemini condenses long threads into bullet points and drafts or refines emails. It can use Drive files as sources and add events to the user’s primary Google Calendar. Inbox housekeeping waits for a person: emails are never deleted, archived, labeled or marked read or unread until the user explicitly confirms.
In Drive, search can open with an AI overview. Someone types a question, like what this spring’s catalog contains, and Gemini reads across the matching files so nobody opens them one by one. It’s on Business Standard and Plus, switched on wherever Gemini in Drive is enabled.
In Sheets, a manager can ask Gemini for a formula or a chart in plain English, or ask it to pick out trends in the figures. It can also summarize emails and Drive files from inside the spreadsheet. Nothing lands in the sheet until someone clicks Insert. Changes like sorting or a pivot table appear as a preview card first, and only apply once someone clicks Apply.
The Gemini app on a work account
Staff signed in with a work account can connect Workspace apps to the Gemini app: Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar, Keep and Tasks. The setting is on by default, and admins can change it for an organizational unit or a group. Staff need Gemini conversation history turned on to use these apps.
When one request spans several apps, every service involved has to be switched on. Asking for a Calendar event with a reminder adds nothing to Calendar if Tasks is turned off for the organization.
Gemini only retrieves Workspace content the user has access to. Someone asking about last quarter’s sales sees what their own account could open, and nothing from a colleague’s private folder.
Microsoft 365 and Salesforce through Gemini Enterprise
Gemini Enterprise, Google’s platform for building and running AI agents at work, connects to systems outside Google. Its Business edition offers connectors for Teams, Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint on the Microsoft side, plus Jira, Confluence, Salesforce, Slack, Box and HubSpot.
Many of those connectors can act as well as search. Through Outlook, Gemini can send and reply to mail and create or update calendar events, and in Salesforce it can create and update records. Each person authorizes their own account for a third-party connector, and for HubSpot an administrator authorizes the connector first. Outlook needs a valid Microsoft 365 license.
What Google commits to on Workspace data
Google’s privacy hub for generative AI in Workspace sets the terms for qualifying editions. Content isn’t human reviewed, and it isn’t used for model training outside the organization’s domain without permission. Interactions with Gemini stay within the organization.
On Enterprise editions, admins can turn Gemini features and the side panel on or off in each app, from Gmail and Drive through to Meet and Chat, by organizational unit or group. These features start switched on. Turning Gemini off in Drive doesn’t hide Drive files from Gemini in Gmail, since Google notes that users can still reach an app’s data through Gemini in other apps.
Building with the Gemini API
Google offers developers two routes. The Gemini Developer API takes an API key from Google AI Studio, with SDKs for Python, JavaScript, Java and Go. The Gemini platform API runs on Google Cloud for businesses that need enterprise controls, and both work through the same Google GenAI SDK.
Function calling connects the models to outside tools and APIs, so an integration can have Gemini book an appointment or send an email through the business’s own code. The Interactions API can also connect to remote MCP servers.
The Gemini API terms treat the UK differently. On unpaid services, Google may use prompts and responses to improve its products, and human reviewers may read them. On paid services, it doesn’t use them to improve its products. For anyone in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, the paid-service data terms cover everything, AI Studio and the free quota included, and apps offered to users there must run on paid services.
Gemini and the files it reads
Gemini already sits inside Gmail, Drive and Sheets, and the Gemini API takes it further into the business. An integration can have it read incoming orders or supplier emails and pass the details to the systems that act on them, or answer questions from a shared drive whose files arrive already sorted and named.
Gemini answers from whatever sits in Drive and Gmail, so the state of those files shapes every answer. Counting the tools a business actually pays for is a sensible first pass, and an AI-readiness guide covers what to tidy before switching AI on.