One of Google’s most profitable businesses is packaging its free consumer apps with a few custom features and added security and then selling them to companies. It is commonly called “Google Workspace” and today it offers email, calendar, documents, storage and video chat. Soon, it looks like Google is gearing up to offer an AI chatbot for businesses. Google’s latest chatbot is called “Gemini” (it used to be “Bard”), and the latest initial patch notes Dylan Roussey of 9to5Google And TestingCatalog.eth Show details of the new “Gemini Business” and “Gemini Enterprise” products.
The patch notes state that Workspace users will get “enterprise-grade data protections” and Gemini settings in the Google Workspace admin console, and that Workspace users can “use Gemini with confidence at work” while ” Trusting that your conversation isn’t used to train Gemini. models.”
These have been “initial patch notes” for Bard/Gemini. one thing Apparently for a while now, some people have had ways of making the site spit out early patch notes, and in this case, they were independently verified by two different people. I’m not sure if the date (fixed on February 21) is reliable.
Normally, you’d expect the Google app to be included in the “business standard” version of Workspace, which costs $12 per user per month, but it looks like Gemini won’t be included. Google describes the product as “the new Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise.” Plans” [emphasis ours] And urges existing paying Google Workspace customers to “upgrade to Gemini Business or Gemini Enterprise today.” Roussei says the “Upgrade Today” link goes to the Duet AI Workspace page, Google’s first “AI for Business” effort, which has not yet been updated with any new plans.
It’s unclear how much of the Duet AI business plan is surviving the Gemini rollout. Duet was announced in August 2023 as a few “Help me write” buttons in Gmail, Docs and other workspace apps, which would all open up chatbots that could control various apps. Duet AI’s “initial offering” was supposed to cost an additional $30 per user per month, but it’s been six months, and Duet AI is still not generally available for businesses. The “Try Duet AI” link goes to a “Request a Trial” contact form. Six months is an eternity in Google’s rapidly evolving AI projects. It’s a good bet that Duet has been replaced by all these Gemini things. Will it still be an extra $30, or has everyone made fun of that price?
If this $30 extra plan for AI ever ships, that would mean a typical AI-powered workspace account would total $45 per user per month. That sounds like a lot, but creative AI products currently take a huge amount of processing, which means they cost a lot. Right now, everyone is in land-grabbing mode, trying to get more customers, but in general, the big players are all losing money. Nvidia’s market-leading AI cards can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 for a single card, and that’s not even counting ongoing power costs.