• Today Google announced that generative AI features are coming to its Workspace ecosystem.
• The announcement was made in the same week that Microsoft is expected to announce something similar for Office 365.
• This is not the first time that Google has looked to pip Microsoft when it comes to launching ChatGPT-like services.

This week, 16th March to be precise, Microsoft plans to host an event where the company is expected to announce new features powered by ChatGPT in its Microsoft 365 applications. Today, however, Google has announced something similar, with generative AI features confirmed for its Workspace ecosystem.

Here the company explained in a blog post that you will be able to use the AI-assisted features in order to generate text in Gmail or Google Docs. As such, it is quite similar to what has been possible with ChatGPT.

“In Gmail and Google Docs, you can simply type in a topic you’d like to write about, and a draft will be instantly generated for you. So if you’re a manager onboarding a new employee, Workspace saves you the time and effort involved in writing that first welcome email. From there, you can elaborate upon or abbreviate the message or adjust the tone to be more playful or professional — all in just a few clicks,” the blog post pointed out.

“We’ll be rolling out these new experiences to testers in the coming weeks,” it added.

For now then, access will remain limited, but should hopefully open to the wider Workspace community soon.

There is therefore a bit of time for Microsoft to beat Google to the punch when it comes to making ChatGPT widely available in Microsoft 365 applications. Either way, however, this is now the second time that both tech companies have looked to beat the other to market.

Whether this rushed approach will yield any further mistakes remains to be seen, especially as the new Microsoft Bing has had to be restricted in some respects, and Google Bard cost the company millions after sharing inaccurate information during testing.

“We’re so excited by the potential of generative AI, and the opportunities it will unlock — from helping people express themselves creatively, to helping developers build brand new types of applications, to transforming how businesses and governments engage their customers and constituents. Stay tuned for more to come in the weeks and months ahead,” Google’s post concluded.

Needless to say, the race is truly on between Google and Microsoft when it comes to adding generative AI capabilities into every single application each company has in their stables.