Gemini AI, Google’s latest language model, is revolutionizing the way we create content in Google Docs, from composing emails and reports to generating creative copy.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to access and set up Gemini AI in Google Docs, explore its impressive features, and provide practical examples of how to leverage its potential for a wide range of tasks.

How to integrate Gemini with Google Docs

Unfortunately, Gemini integration with Google’s Workspace suite isn’t available to free users. You’ll need a $20/month subscription to the Google One AI Premium Plan (or a work or school account via a Gemini add-on for Google Workspace) to gain access. Signing up for the personal plan is straightforward.

Log in to your free Gemini account and click on the large radio button that says “Try Gemini Advanced!” in the top right corner of the screen. Click Start trial version At the bottom of the new tab, select your payment structure and then click Subscribe. Once you sign up, the first month of service is free.

Getting started with Gemini

Next, log in to your Google One AI Premium account and open a new instance of Docs. Select an existing document to open it, or create a new one. Look in the top right corner of the editing window, between the Share button and your avatar. This icon launches the Gemini sidebar. Click on it.

The side panel runs along the right edge of the window and can be expanded outwards. It offers users a series of suggested actions above the context window that it can perform on their behalf. Use it like the Gemini chatbot.

This integration works just like the chatbot version, allowing you to generate and rewrite prose, answer questions related to the topic you’re writing about, and even generate images that you can seamlessly integrate into your document.

What Gemini can do in Docs

Gemini in Google Docs offers a number of generative features. It can, of course, create prose in a variety of styles—from professional tasks like sales pitch scripts, business reports, social media captions, and reply email drafts, to creative tasks like writing poetry, short stories, and song lyrics. You can also reference files in Drive and emails in Gmail directly from Gemini in Google Docs.

But Gemini can also shorten and lengthen texts as needed with the summary and expansion features. You can request a summary of a long document and Gemini can return the key points or further elaborate on an existing text to provide additional details. Upon request, Gemini can even rewrite entire passages and adjust the tone of your writing to better suit different audiences and social situations.

For example, I outlined my professional experience as a journalist over the past decade and asked Gemini to write a cover letter for me applying for a general technology reporter position. The first draft was rough—the AI ​​got the order of my career history wrong and the entire document was terribly lacking in detail.

However, with just a few more prompts, I was able to create a usable draft cover letter that I could then add specific job details to. I wouldn’t say it was necessarily easier than writing the cover letter myself (since I have to hand edit it again to bring it up to date), but it saved me the part of the process where I’m staring into myself at the beginning until a halfway decent idea comes to me and the suggestions for improving the writing highlight gaps in my hiring arguments.

The AI ​​also easily translates your text into one of 40 languages ​​and generates content directly in those languages ​​as well. For example, during a test, Gemini quickly created a 200-word argument for me in French in favor of eating a cheeseburger for lunch. However, I have no idea if the arguments are convincing since I don’t speak French.

What you can do with Gemini

Even if you don’t want to give the reins completely to AI, Gemini can assist you in your writing in many ways. One application that Google has repeatedly shown in its demos and presentations is using the AI ​​as a sounding board to brainstorm ideas, whether for a topic area, headline, or article topic. Gemini can also put together outlines and story lines that you can flesh out yourself.

In the not-so-rare cases where you experience writer’s block in the middle of a text, Gemini can make suggestions on how to advance the plot or offer alternative perspectives for your analysis. It can also act as a research assistant, gathering information on your topic right in the document window and summarizing its findings.

You can even use Gemini to edit and proofread writing. It goes beyond a simple spell checker and can identify errors in your argument and stumbling blocks in your prose, then suggest improvements to further refine your idea.

For example, I fed my recent article about WPP’s new advertising collaboration with Coca-Cola into a document and asked for suggestions for improvements. The document provided a surprisingly (rather insultingly) large number of opportunities for improvement, including “Provide more context in the introduction,” “Explain the benefits of using AI in advertising in more detail,” “Discuss the potential impact of AI in advertising,” and “Add a more descriptive and engaging title.”

While I probably wouldn’t have actually implemented these changes in the article during publication, this is good advice from my human editors and could serve as a good starting point for follow-up stories.