Google unveils 'magic wand' for emails and documents: Report

Alphabet’s Google on Tuesday unveiled a flurry of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for its email, collaboration and cloud software, taking aim at Microsoft days before its rival is expected to make a similar announcement.

In a replay of last month’s duelling chatbot launches by the tech giants, Alphabet touted a “magic wand” for its popular Google Docs software that can draft a marketing blog, training plan or other text, then revise its tone at users’ discretion, a company official demonstrated to reporters.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has teased a Thursday event about how it is “reinventing productivity with AI,” which is expected to showcase its competing Word processor.

Alphabet also said its AI will be able to summarise message threads in Gmail, craft slide presentations, personalise customer outreach and take meeting notes as part of its upgrade to Google Workspace, a product suite with billions of users on free and paid accounts.

The advances reflect how ChatGPT has spurred a race in Silicon Valley to imbue products with so-called generative AI, which learns from past data how to create content anew, just like the chatbot sensation.

“This next phase is where we’re bringing human beings to be supported with an AI collaborator, who is working in real time,” Thomas Kurian, chief executive of Google Cloud, said.