Generative AI and the Modern Workforce

Collaboration and communication tools have evolved significantly, progressing from early email and instant messaging to the cloud-based, integrated and AI-powered platforms used by workforces today. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this evolution as businesses had to swiftly digitize processes and working models. As a result, workplaces have become more digitized than ever.

Innovations such as generative AI have led to advancements that promise to revolutionize how people work, empowering employees to achieve goals more effectively and helping drive overall organizational success.

To better understand how generative AI is shaping the modern workforce, I spoke with Tricia Davis-Muffett, Senior Director of Google Workspace Marketing, and George Shihadeh, National Sales Director for Workplace Collaboration at Onix in CCS Insight's latest podcast episode.

Our discussion unpacked the role of generative AI in the modern workforce, delving into real-world applications by enterprises across different sectors.

The episode explores:

• The role of generative AI tools in solving crucial challenges for businesses, such as difficult economic circumstances and hybrid working.
• The importance of security when integrating AI into companies of all sizes.
• The future of work and how generative AI tools will empower workplace transformation.
• Real-world applications of AI and enterprises' attitudes toward employee training.

CCS Insight has produced a free report detailing the key points of the podcast discussion, available here. 

Creators & Guests

Host

Maria Bell

Senior Analyst, CCS Insight

GS

Guest

George Shihadeh

National Sales Director for Workplace Collaboration at Onix

TD

Guest

Tricia Davis-Muffett

Senior Director of Google Workspace Marketing

What is The CCS Insight Podcast?

Insightful audio from the global tech advisory firm.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
Welcome to the CCS Insight podcast series. My name is Maria Bell, and I'm a senior research analyst here at CCS Insight. In today's podcast, we'll be discussing topics around workplace collaboration and specifically how Google Workspace is helping to shape the future of work. Joining me for the first half of this podcast discussion is Tricia Davis-Muffett, Senior Director of Google Workspace Marketing. Later on, I'll also be joined by one of Google Workspace's customers, George Shihadeh from Onix Network Corporation. Tricia, welcome. Great to have you on the podcast.

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Thanks so much for having me today.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
So the last few years have unfolded as a pivotal chapter in the workplace as it continues to transform. Propelled by employee preferences, technological advancements, and an ongoing quest for the best balance between remote and in-person work. As we know, the world was transformed by the pandemic, with economic challenges and global uncertainties the workplace has undergone, or some would still say is undergoing a significant shift.
And the pandemic saw businesses rapidly digitize their processes and reconsider their long-established working models. And the prolonged period of remote work required organizations to adopt more flexible working practices for where and how employees worked. But the cornerstone of discussions focused heavily on the actual technology itself, and we saw organizations racing to acquire workplace collaboration and productivity apps.
So, with workplaces now more digitized than ever, and with experience so inextricably linked to the technology itself, the tools workers use to collaborate, learn and do their work have become a vital consideration for organizations looking to remain competitive, retain talent, but more importantly than ever, maximize productivity and efficiency. Workplace technologies undeniably become the backbone of productivity and collaboration.
And new innovations such as generative AI have led to vast improvements. Google have been embedding AI in its workspace app since 2015. But in March 2023, it announced a new suite of generative AI features to rival its competitors. And in February this year, Google announced the next chapter of its Gemini era, including Gemini for Google Workspace, with some exciting announcements at Google Cloud next in April.
So, Tricia, can you contextualize what these announcements mean for the billions of Google Workspace users in the thousands of companies who have used Gemini for Google Workspace?

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Sure, yeah. I really appreciate the context you put this in, Maria. We see the use of Workspace being a critical element to getting the most out of teams that are not in the same place always. People have gotten used to collaborating, across, you know, remote and in-person locations.
And there are two elements of your productivity tools. So one of them is becoming more productive, the other one is actually accomplishing things together and truly having a collaborative work environment.
And then, you know, bringing us into the Gemini era, which, you know, we did make our generative AI capabilities in Workspace generally available in August of 2023, so really, ahead of some of our competitors.
And then in February, we were in the Gemini era with Gemini for Google Workspace. So this has a profound impact on how people work. It's just right there in your workflow and you have access to basically a team of experts right in your app. So if you need a writing assistant, if you need a research assistant, if you want a thought-partner to brainstorm with, if you want help with your analytics, all of that is right where you're already working, which we think is incredibly powerful.
There are different plans available for our business users, but to help sort of match what they're looking for, and that also an important thing is that it provides them with the security and privacy that they're looking for. So, we have always held data privacy and confidentiality and security at the core of what we do. And with Workspace we're continuing that promise. And we are assuring our customers that everything they do in Workspace and with Gemini will stay private and protected.
Now we're moving that even further ahead. So, some of the things that we just announced at Next: we announced that we're bringing a brand-new app into the Google Workspace suite, which is kind of a big deal for us. It's, you know, been a while since we introduced a whole new app. So, Google Vids will be our new AI-powered video creation app for work.
And it really takes video creation to a whole new level because video has been kind of a solo project for the most part and very specialized projects, and there are a lot of folks who want to tell a story. Maybe they want to do a training video, maybe they want to demo a new product, maybe they want to present something, but they're not in the right time zone or they can't get everybody together at the right time. So, for people who want to tell a story by video to their colleagues at work, Vids will allow them to do that and also to collaborate on that with their colleagues, all in real time. So that's amazing, and it'll be in Workspace Labs in June.
And then we also announced two new ways to get access to Gemini. So we know that not everyone wants the full suite of generative AI across everything. Or maybe they're just not ready for that, they need to think about it, there are certain pockets that want to use it.
So we have new ways for people to access it. We are allowing people to buy a much lower priced SKU that will bring them AI-powered meetings and messaging. So basically just in Chat and Meet so you can get all of the cool AI features in meetings and messaging. So, you can get Take Notes for Me as it comes out, Attend for Me, all the AI translation that we have available.
Or you can also get the AI-powered security, which gives you AI Classification of your documents so that you can be sure that nothing is being classified in the wrong way, and you can train your Drive and actually, you can train it across not just Workspace documents but anything.
So as you start to write documents and you're drawing on what do I know about this topic? And it's pulling from your documents, you can make sure that people only have access to what they should have access to.
So we've already seen tremendous change in the way that businesses of all sizes approach work. And, at Cloud Next, we had a ton of our customers speaking. Uber was telling stories about how they gained productivity and employee satisfaction, increased creativity. We heard from their CEO who said that Gemini for Google Workspace helps them save time on repetitive tasks and frees up developers for higher value work and reduces their agency spending, enhances player retention. So all of those things are critical to their success.
And then, we also were really talking a lot about security because security is top-of-mind for our customers. There has been so much in the press about security breaches lately. And the pace of security, cybersecurity incidents is just increasing constantly. So customers, you know, choose Google Workspace for many reasons.
And, security is one of them. We heard from Nick Riva, who's the head of corporate security engineering at Snap. And he shared that the company, which is a digital native, started with Google Workspace at its founding over 13 years ago. And by leveraging Google Workspace’s zero-trust security model, they've seen zero account takeovers in two years. And so this is a powerful testament to the strength of Workspace’s built-in features like two-step verification and multi-factor authentication and high frequency cookie rotation.
We are continuing constantly to innovate and to build helpful, secure tools that enable people to collaborate and do their best work. And we're proud of that.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
I mean, that's great. And I agree. And I think actually, it really showcased a much more connected and integrated AI narrative across your portfolio. What you've talked about here just really represents the significant strides in your collaboration and productivity capabilities.
You know, for me, like the recent announcements like Google Vids, Take Notes for Me and Translate for Me. I think they could really provide significant value for global organizations, you know, collaborating across language barriers and ensuring more cohesive interactions and enhancing efficiency in meetings and then enhancing productivity, you know, across content creation workflows.
But today's world can be a tough environment for organizations. We have challenging economic circumstances. The world of work has become massively, increasingly complex with global teams, hybrid environments and much more. So, what's your take on how Gemini for Workspace can help solve some of these challenges for small businesses and enterprises alike?

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Yeah. It's interesting. I'm dating myself a little bit, but I have been through many technological shifts in my lifetime, and I've seen a lot of, sort of anxiety and hesitation. I remember my first real job, they had not yet accepted email as an official mode of communication. Only the printed paper memo was acceptable. Or, you know, transparency is where the only way that you could present things. I was like, this is so bizarre, coming from school where we were using other things, but I think that we're in that same kind of a shift.
The shift to cloud was the same thing. Right? And this is a real shift where we expect generative AI to become ubiquitous. And so one of the best ways for organizations to gain competitive advantage and to shore up their economic advantage is really to move on these technologies quickly. And, you know, they'll be able to accomplish more and have their people unlock more creativity if they adopt before their, you know, potentially larger competitors do.
We see it really as for individuals as well as for organizations. So, the individuals who really learn how to harness the power of this technology and get more done and sort of spend their energy on the things that make them uniquely great at their jobs, will help them to move ahead in their careers.
And then also the organizations that embrace this as, you know, as a way of working will be able to move forward faster. And, and we're helping people identify what those places are that they can take advantage of this technology. One thing that we're seeing is that the technology really is helping to build accessibility.
So, it's giving, just as I mentioned, that economic advantage. You know, we think about small businesses, especially where people wear a lot of hats. And so, getting access to sort of an expert by your side can help get things done in an organization where you're, you know, working long hours, trying to do lots of different things that you're not an expert at.
But also, we see teams where they're working across geographic boundaries. And some of the Meet capabilities make it easier for people to work asynchronously, like, you know, Take Notes for Me, Attend for Me.
It helps give you a better context on the meetings. Also, we're finding people who are not native speakers of English who are working in global organizations, it really unlocks their creativity and ideas. They don't spend time sort of hesitating to share their ideas because they're worried about whether the English is perfect. Instead, they can more easily get sort of that polished email off or the chat message or whatever, without worrying about all of that so they can move more quickly and share their ideas.
And we've heard lots of folks saying that this has unlocked parts of their organization that were kind of quiet and sort of standoffish previously. So, you know, as we think about what parts of organizations are really taking advantage of this, where it really works across lots of different kinds of teams.
But like in sales, it's such an accelerator for revenue growth by helping salespeople do all of the things that are not the part of, you know, sort of helping people find a solution. And, you know, having that relationship with humans. But all of the aspects of the job that are the communication, the sending emails, the sending out prospecting, getting their sales materials, right, all of those things, customizing something that they've already received from somewhere. All of those things that are not usually the forte or the thing that a sales person looks forward to. Those can be done more quickly and help them move on to the thing that makes them uniquely talented in their role.
For marketers, they can use it to brainstorm, have mood boards for their campaigns, generate content faster. I know as a marketer, I'm always asked like: Oh, that's great. Can you make that content work for, you know, these 50 different slices of different types of people? Well, you can do that a lot faster once you've got the core content built, if you have access to generative AI. And also getting more insight into what's going on by using the Gemini capabilities.
And then customer service teams, this is one that we're seeing constantly coming back to us. You know, customer service is all about solid communication that feels custom, that is well-crafted. But it also is about speed, right? Nobody wants to wait for an answer. People want to make sure that the answer they get is accurate and understandable. So, it's much easier for customer service folks to be able to give a really good quality response to people much more quickly, when they are able to use Gemini to help them draft and refine their emails, generate plans for a project, write and refine document drafts.
These are really, really great capabilities that are helping everyone. As far as you know, lots of folks are asking about, you know. Well, how will I know if I can get the return on investment on this? If you just want to go by the numbers, it's not very expensive per employee per month. And so, in most contexts people would have to save less than an hour a month to make it worth their while, you know, certainly less than two hours. almost everywhere. And so, that seems pretty, pretty easy to accomplish when you consider all of these use cases.
But we are hearing about how much time teams are saving using Workspace and Google's AI offerings. So, for example, we heard from Bristol Myers Squibb that Google Cloud's Vertex AI, integrated with Workspace, has enabled their team to leverage generative AI to save time and spend more time focused on science and patients.
I mean, they are developing drugs to solve some of the most-pressing problems in healthcare, and they have these high-value scientists who were spending time on documentation. So instead, they can use Vertex AI and Google Workspace to accelerate timelines and improve the quality of their documentation. And they can create these informed consent forms that are required for, you know, legal purposes that used to take weeks and now they can do it in just minutes. So I mean, that's an incredible unlock of some highly valuable employees.
We heard from our customer at FinQuery, who is VP of Infrastructure that she could, create a report that was CTO-ready almost immediately instead of spending hours on that.
Our customer Sports Basement was talking about how it has helped them to achieve a 30% to 35% reduction in the time they spend drafting messages when they're responding to customers. So that's an incredible use case for this.
And we have had some folks spring up that it really is not necessarily just about sort of the accounting side of things to get more from this capability. But it's actually about improving employees' experience at work because we all know that people have a choice about how much energy they put into their jobs and if they're enjoying what they're doing, if the work they are doing is not soul-crushing and repetitive, they will give you more of what they their creativity, their energy, their excitement.
And when they do that, the output of their work is better.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
Wow. I mean, you covered a lot there. And I think you made some great points, thank you. If I may, just going back to your point of return on investment, I mean, because I think understanding what it is really key to improving the decision-making process, especially when operating within the uncertain global economy that we find ourselves in now.
I think being able to see the value these solutions can bring really helps companies to drive informed investment decisions when they need to justify budgets and for prioritizing their spending. So, I think that's a really good point you made there. I think what we're seeing is collaboration and productivity apps literally transforming how people work.
Our own employee workplace survey painted a pretty convincing picture of a workforce gradually embracing generative AI as integral work tools. We know it's early days. We know it's still a maturing market, but we found that over half of employees are incorporating generative AI into their daily workflows. And for those that have received extensive training in that, more than 50% reported significant improvements in both productivity and work quality.
Integrating AI into everyday tasks, it doesn't just offer the potential for employees to save time or collaborate more efficiently, and work in a more flexible and accessible way. But I think also, more importantly, being able to use that saved time to actually unlock their full potential. I mean, for me, I think it's also going to be really interesting to see how roles might change or how they might evolve as the technology becomes more embedded and actually as the market matures.
So I know we've touched on this already, but building secure products that gives users choice and control over their data. I mean, it's a bedrock principle for Google Workspace. So how does this ethos fit in when we look at how companies of all sizes can adopt emerging technologies like generative AI and specifically Gemini in Workspace?

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Yeah, that's a great question. So first let me lay a little bit of groundwork beyond AI. Customers choose Workspace because we're secure, and I've spoken a little bit about that, but we have really invested heavily in this area over the last 15 years. And our track record is excellent. So according to the US Department of Homeland Security, their agency CISA, the cybersecurity agency, one in three of the most-exploited vulnerabilities in 2022 were in Microsoft Exchange. So that's not an accident. Google has built secure, helpful products for the last 25 years, and it's a foundational principle for us.
And we are carrying that through to generative AI. So, there's a lot of anxiety about what happens with data in generative AI, but for us, data privacy and security continues to be top of mind in the era of generative AI. So unlike traditional email, private email and productivity solutions, Gmail and Workspace were built from the very beginning in a cloud-native architecture that is rooted in zero-trust principles and augmented with AI-powered threat defences.
So that's why Gmail blocks more than 99.9% of spam, phishing attempts and malware from ever even reaching people's inboxes. So now, with large language models we're blocking an additional 20% more spam in Gmail and we can evaluate a thousand times more user reported spam in Gmail every day. So, this is foundational to why we actually announced that new AI security add-on that allows IT teams to automatically classify and protect sensitive files, companywide and Google Drive. And so you know, this capability uses privacy preserving AI models that are trained using data unique to your organization, enabling continuous evaluation, classification, and protection of existing and new files in Drive for all of your employees, including frontline workers. So, you know, over a million users and thousands of organizations have experienced Gemini for Workspace, and none of them have had to sacrifice privacy or security.
So customers from the public sector, like the United Nations Population Fund and in the US, the Uniformed Services University, which is a health care university for the Defense Department here. And then, you know, enterprise companies across the world like Randstad, Trellix, Verizon, they're all embracing a new way to work without sacrificing control over their data.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
I think you made some really important points there as well. I mean, it's like you say, building those secure products, prioritizing user choice, enabling to control their own data, it should be a foundational principle, certainly productivity and collaboration tools and as well as other things. But I think the creation of generative AI into Google Workspace, it does really align with the ethos we've always held.
And I think this is really evident. And then, I mean, we know from our own surveys here that security continues to be the number one priority for IT investments, and, you know, you talked about introducing advanced threat detection. You know, cyberattacks are the number one primary security concern. And I think generative AI has a potential to really enhance corporate cyber security and tip the balance back to defenders.

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Yes, I totally agree.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
But let's change tack a bit now. As we know, the phrase the future of work has been a frequent topic of discussion, including on our podcast today. And people and organizations are eager to explore really new ways to connect, accomplish the things they need to get done, save time, make work a little easier.
Can you give us a bit more insight into how Gemini for Workspace can help to make this a reality for their employees?

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Yes, we've touched on a number of these, but I would say, that piece about taking on the tasks that are not value-added but have to get done where it's routine work. It can be, one of our customers has called it soul-crushing, I kind of love that phrase, because that's the work that we want to get through more quickly so that people can get to the work that they really want to be doing and the work that, you know, the reason they started in their profession, the reason that they were hired in the company, you know, whatever unique talents they have, we want them to unlock those.
So, you know, we want people to get past those repetitive, you know, soul-crushing tasks and get to the good work. So that's one of the things that we're hoping to do with Gemini for Workspace. And I think, you know, our customers have found that that is in fact, the case.
We also hear from our customers that using Gemini has helped them foster deeper connections. So, as I mentioned, some of the customers have told us that they have teams in other parts of the world who were hesitant to share their ideas because they were worried whether they could communicate them clearly in English. And so, using Help Me Write, they've been able to overcome that and really unlock the creativity of whole groups of their organizations and bring those ideas forward.
We've also heard from our customers that they're using Gemini to kickstart brainstorming and to open up new creative discussions with their teams. I know I've used it for some, like, okay, it's late at night and I have a project to work on. I don't want to bother any of my colleagues, but I really need to have some other ideas here other than mine, and so I can sort of riff on an idea with Gemini, like it's another person that I'm chatting with.
And it's really helpful to move my own thinking forward. and then we've seen, we're working with Pepperdine University so that, you know, they've got so many, people who come from different backgrounds, who speak different languages, and that we all are using Gemini within Google Workspace has helped them to quickly transcribe meeting minutes and summarize them in succinct ways, and also have on demand translation within the meeting so that more people can participate more fully in conversation.
So we're excited about those things. And then, of course, there's also the area of, you know, sustainability. We really have set an ambitious goal to reach net zero emissions across our operations and the value chain by 2030, supported by our aim to operate our offices and campuses and data centres and carbon free energy 24/7. So, you know, our carbon footprint for Google Workspace will help customers navigate their sustainability goals as well.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
That's fantastic. I mean, then I'm with you. II feel like we're at the forefront of a digital revolution or revolution. And then, you know, I think we're transforming work or we're seeing work transformed. I think for me that seamless integration and the smart writing, data management, you know, the saving on tasks that nobody wants to work on.
You know, there for the potential for every employee, really to save time, collaborate better, unlock their full potential. And I think for me, it's going to be interesting to see whether or how roles might develop or evolve or change in the future, sort of as this really matures. I think we've got time for just one more question.
What's next for customers? How can we stay engaged with the latest from Google Workspace?

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Yeah. We have a lot of exciting things. We just announced Google Vids, which is, will be the next thing coming out Labs. I would encourage folks to sign up for a free trial of Google Workspace and, you know, Gemini in Google Workspace. If they're already a user, you can get a free trial of Workspace and Gemini on top of it at the same time.
Also, I would encourage folks to learn more about AI. So we have just launched a Google's AI Essentials course, which is really meant for learners of all backgrounds, whether they're new to AI or not, to get up to speed on all aspects of AI and generative AI.
And it gives you hands-on experience with prompting and generative AI. Also, on our Workspace website, you can get a version of our prompt guide that we've created that helps you navigate generative AI. And it helps you understand how to put a prompt together for your own role.
Okay. I'm an event marketer, I'm trying to create a plan for this, what would I do? How would I prompt that? And, it's really helpful and useful. And we'll continue to evolve that as new features come online within Google Workspace and with Gemini. So we encourage you to stay up to date with the latest announcements and product launches and customer stories at workspace.google.com/blog. And check out our new series, Beyond the prompt to learn how to get the most out of Gemini for Google Workspace.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
That's great. I mean, there's so much for our listeners to take away there. And actually, I've read that prompt guide, it's really useful.
But you know, the future of work is dynamic. technology continues to embed itself into the fabric of our workplace. And I think as well, encouraging organizations as employees to, to be part of that improvement process, you know, sharing their experiences and suggestions. But like you said, inspiring people to stay engaged, to learn about and explore new possibilities, because I think that the choices they make today, I think they're really going to help shape the future of work.

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Totally agree.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
And, I think we've that we've reached the end of our time, Tricia. And I just want to say thank you so much for joining me today and for taking your time to share your insights with our listeners.

Tricia Davis-Muffett, Google
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
We've just heard Tricia's perspectives on Google Workspace offerings, and now we have an opportunity to hear first-hand how these are being utilized in practice. I'm excited to take a deeper dive into the real-world application of Google solutions by introducing my second guest, George Shihadeh, National Sales director for Workplace Collaboration, Onix Networking Corporation. Welcome, George. Thank you for joining us today and sharing your insights with our listeners.

George Shihadeh, Onix
Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
George, it would be great if our audience could get to know a little more about you. Can you give us a quick introduction of yourself and your company?

George Shihadeh, Onix
Yeah, absolutely. I've been with Onix for nine years, based in Cleveland, Ohio, and Onix is a Google Cloud Premier consulting partner. So, we've been partnered with Google Cloud since 2002. We've got a 22-year plus track record of helping organizations to evaluate core competencies of Google Cloud, including Google Workspace, Gemini for Google Workspace, and ultimately dovetailing into helping organizations to deploy those solutions, adopt them and ultimately maximize their investment in all things Google Cloud.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
That's great, thank you. I know our listeners will be really pleased to understand a little more about what you do. Can you give us an insight into how Google Workspace changed the way you or your teams work, and how your teams are currently using Gemini for Google Workspace?

George Shihadeh, Onix
Yeah, absolutely. I think, well, one of the most, you know, compelling components of the platform is the ability for colleagues to communicate and connect, regardless of where they are right in the world, regardless of what device they're operating on, and regardless of what time of day it is right to be quite honest. So, I think it just creates more of a free-flowing communication and collaboration set up for everyone.
With me being in sales, right, I'm typically working around the clock on customer proposals and engaging with my team to ensure that we have materials and proposals and presentations and pricing prepared. And that requires me to collaborate with internal resources, external partners such as Google and the customer itself. So, Google Workspace really facilitates and enables me to operate on my phone when I'm traveling or to operate on my Chromebook or my Mac device or a Windows machine if I need to in the same capacity.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
That's brilliant. And that's definitely what we're seeing in the wider market, especially with hybrid working here to stay, certainly after the pandemic.
As is well known. Prioritizing privacy and security is a crucial consideration for protecting a business. So what did you consider, when adopting Gemini for Google Workspace as it relates to privacy and security? Can you tell us a little bit more about what those conversations look like internally?

George Shihadeh, Onix
Yeah. Absolutely. As a customer of Google's and as a partner of Google's, it was incumbent on our team and our security team to do a very comprehensive review of not just the terms of service, but Google's security infrastructure. And as we engaged with Google's, you know, engineering team and security leads, it quickly became evident, right, Google uses this platform to trust their own data, right. As Google runs all of their global employees on this infrastructure. So, a lot of our review was if this infrastructure is meeting and exceeding Google's internal requirements from a security perspective, then it more than likely is going to meet Onix's requirements from a security and privacy perspective.
So we did a very comprehensive review with regards to administrative capabilities, security features and functionality, data loss prevention and what concluded and security centre, how do we monitor, you know, access to, to content and limit things that we don't want to be shared.
So the Google team did a fantastic job of pulling in the right resources to, to help us with those, you know, due diligence conversations early on. And now, you know, we take that knowledge and that expertise out to our customer base as well.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
That's great. And I think you touched on a few really important points there. And I think you must be reassured, it sounds like you're reassured by Google's approach. You know, that it follows a responsible approach in accordance with its AI principles. and like you say, understanding how your data will be handled, knowing your data won't be misused. I mean, it's absolutely crucial. and I think that a clear and robust privacy policy, such as the one Google has in place, I think it's a sign of a really reliable tool.

George Shihadeh, Onix
Agreed, right. And a key thing for, for us, as well, was really digging into, right, data processing and data privacy and Google made it clear from day one that our data is our data. Google is the data processor, and us as the organization are the data owners. So that that was critical.
And that's also something that was very important. you know, as we look at, right, not just deploying Gemini for Google Workspace internally, but also externally of ensuring that we can articulate that those models and those AI or the AI that makes the engine run isn't leveraging, you know, our specific information to train other organizations' models or that, other external entities have the ability to tap into what we're doing from an AI perspective. So that was really important for us to understand as well. And Google did a great job of validating that. Again, our data is our data.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
Yeah, and they do make that really clear, and it sounds like it really aligns with your own organization's policies that, you know, that you have in place.
So, let's move on to generative AI. I mean, if you've been living under a rock, you may not have heard of it, but, I think it's something that's a topic of discussion for everybody.
But really, generative AI, it presents an opportunity to fundamentally shift the way we approach work. And Gemini for Google Workspace can transform how people do their jobs. So, for you and your organization, were there any immediate "ah-ha" moments, particularly around efficiency or increased creativity for your teams when you first started using Gemini for Google Workspace?

George Shihadeh, Onix
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that, you know, there are quick wins, right, with, you know, smart reply and email, which is going to recommend, you know, a response to an organization based on the conversation you're having right there. There are things that help to eliminate and reduce minutia. So, email responses, if I can save 30 seconds on an email response and then multiply that times, you know, 15 or 20 emails a day, we're talking right upwards of, you know, 15 to 20 minutes save just on email responses which, which is great. And that's a quick win.
Other things that you know have really helped to generate massive time savings are leveraging the transcript functionality in Google Meet, the generate meeting notes, for example. And to summarize action items in a more, predictive and proactive fashion, that's critical for us, right? And for me, right, I'm on meetings, most of the of the day. So the ability to leverage that transcription and then make it actionable is fantastic.
Things that I personally enjoy, right, is leveraging some of the features and functionality in Google Sheets. I am not a pivot table master. So the ability for me to have a data set in a Google Sheet and to leverage Gemini for Google Workspace to assess that data and create pivot tables and to provide me with proactive data sets and recommendations based on what the data is telling me is fantastic, right? Like that literally can save hours of time in just data analysis and presenting information to me in a, in a more consumable manner.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
Personally as well, using myself, that's what I see. But that's definitely what we're seeing in the wider market. I mean, we're seeing, a really wide, fairly even, but very widespread range of applications, you know, pointing to some of the things you talked about: analysing data, some of the quick wins, the email responses, replying in chats, you know, but also seeing, creating presentations, summarizing content and as you mentioned, summarizing meeting notes.
And I guess for me, really, and I think maybe as it starts to evolve, I think the uses will probably start to more accurately reflect the areas of people's roles. So, where the technology brings the most productivity gains for you as an employee, as an individual, you know that as you mentioned in a lot of meetings, so summarizing those meeting notes is going to gain you a lot of efficiency in the day.
I think these technologies, I mean, they're really starting to reshape the way employees operate. I mean, it is still fairly early days for generative AI, but I think there's certainly a shift in mind-set happening. I mean, we've again here, we've already seen from our surveys at CCS Insight that adoption is already yielding substantial improvements in employee productivity and the quality of work. And we've seen that jump really high for those that have actually received fairly extensive training in generative AI. Is that something your organization has taken on board is to train your employees in the new technology?

George Shihadeh, Onix
Yeah, absolutely. That's important to us, right? Because as a partner, it's incumbent on us to have the expertise from a change management and a training perspective to roll these solutions out to our customer base in a very effective manner. And that all starts with use case generation, working with individual lines of business to build personas and again, understand, right, what is specific to me and sales that may not be specific to marketing or engineering or HR and really refining what those use cases are across each line of business. And being prescriptive with the training and enablement and change management methodology. So for us that's critical. And, you know, we're kind of the mind-set that we need to eat our own dogfood before rolling it out to customers. So we take that same approach from a change management perspective to, you know, go through that trial and error, roll things out internally, ensure that we can, identify those green shoots of opportunity, and then that empowers us to be more effective and efficient when we're rolling these solutions out to our customer base in a very methodical change management fashion.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And I think, you know, your point about building up the use cases. I think you're right, it's vital, looking at how to maximize the potential value and, like you said, minimizing the risks. And then, you know, ensuring alignment to the needs of your organization, your customers and your employees, and actually, that leads me on quite nicely to, our last question. What do the next few months look like for your company in terms of experimentation with Gemini for Google Workspace, what do you think the long-term impacts will be to your company?

George Shihadeh, Onix
I think the platform itself has robust features and functionality today, but a lot of the road map items that are being rolled into the platform are especially exciting for us. And that's a key focus, right? So we want to be as proactive as possible in understanding what's going to be rolled into the platform when it's being rolled into the platform.
And then again, being very, prescriptive with how we're going to implement from a change management perspective. A lot of what we're doing right now is planning for that, to ensure that when those features and functionality hit the platform, we're prepared for it.
And we take a continuous adoption approach to what we do. So, we continually reengage with the lines of business to identify ,right, we went through a first round of training and enablement with your team. What have you done since then? And what are the values that your experience from Gemini for Google Workspace.
So it's kind of a never ending, education model, right, for us. And we want to ensure that we're really focusing on that next generation of innovation and ideation, leveraging, you know, all of the amazing things that are being rolled into the platform.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
Well, I mean, it certainly sounds like it's very interesting and exciting times ahead. And I think, you know, that goes for all of us, you know, because I think the integration of these technologies, you know, they all help. They are shaping the way we operate as employees. and we know that for organizations, the need to seek productivity-boosting, you know, that's one side of it, solutions. It's imperative if you want to remain competitive, you know, especially within the current economic climate we found ourselves in.
And, like I say, I think it definitely sounds like there are very interesting, very exciting times ahead. Certainly as the technology continues to embed itself in the fabric of the workplace, something we're seeing more and more and more. And for me personally, it feels like we might be at the forefront of what could prove to be, what I'm calling a dynamic technological revolution.

George Shihadeh, Onix
Yeah, I completely agree, right. I think that that, there are only so many hours in the day and identifying how you can, you know, leverage Gemini for Google Workspace as your personal AI assistant to automate things and introduce that process improvement is only going to empower us as employees to be more productive on an hour-by-hour basis. So I'm extremely excited about it.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
Thanks, George. And that brings us quite nicely to the end of today's podcast.

George Shihadeh, Onix
Yeah. Thank you so much for hosting me today. It was a pleasure chatting with everyone and looking forward to connecting in the near future.

Maria Bell, CCS Insight
So I'd like to extend my thanks to our special guests, George Shihadeh and Tricia Davis-Muffet, for sharing their invaluable insights and experience with us. Thanks for listening and goodbye.