Your New Overachieving Coworker Might Secretly Be A Bot Powered By Google AI

Video screenshot via Google

The era of hybrid work means you may never see the faces of some colleagues. This newcomer, however, might stay masked for a long time. At the Google I/O event, the tech giant introduced a “coworker” that doesn’t ever need a coffee break: the ‘AI Teammate’. Part of its Gemini for Workspace platform, this prototype aims to elevate the conventional chatbot experience by integrating it into a multi-user environment, essentially becoming a virtual teammate.

Unlike traditional chatbots that interact with just one person at a time, the AI Teammate operates within group chats, emails, and documents, effectively participating like any other team member. This digital coworker has an identity and its own Google Workspace account, and can be assigned roles and objectives. Given that this is an AI assistant, it would be able to follow instructions to a T.

Google showcased this feature at the event with an AI Teammate named ‘Chip’, who exemplified how these AI colleagues can have distinct identities. With its own workspace account, Chip can engage in group communications, manage documents, and respond to emails, providing a seamless and interactive experience.

You can meet Chip around the 1:04:28 mark of the livestream:

One of the strengths of the AI Teammate is its ability to build a knowledge base from shared information—a “collective memory,” if you will—answering questions in group chats by referencing previously shared data. This capability extends to emails and documents, allowing the AI Teammate to ease itself into existing workflows, monitor project progress, and offer insights based on the data it has been exposed to.

Efficiency and collaboration are the objectives of the AI Teammate. By taking care of repetitive tasks, it frees up human team members for more strategic work. Additionally, it can act as a knowledge hub, identifying trends and connections within the data that might otherwise go unnoticed. 

[via Mashable and Engadget, video and cover screenshot via Google]