Workspace users can now access Google’s Bard AI chatbot

At launch, Google’s new Apprentice Bard Artificial Intelligence chatbot was mysteriously not available to Google Workspace users, even though the company was already planning to integrate generative AI into Workspace apps like Docs with the “Help me Write” feature. However, according to Bard’s new updates log that recently implemented to show users what changes and improvements have been made to the fledgling platform, “Access for Google Workspace Accounts” is the latest entry.

According to the company, Workspace admins can now enable Bard for their domains, allowing their users to access Bard with their organization Gmail accounts. Google’s AI can help you work by assisting with research tasks, simplifying other business needs such as planning, ideation, advice and more.

To enable this (as it rolls out over the next few days), just visit your Workspace Admin dashboard and go to Apps > Additional Google services > Early Access Apps. From there, just follow the steps in the image below, which was posted to the Workspace Updates blog today.

You may be asking why on Earth you’d even want Bard for your company’s Workspace setup. Well, Google’s AI can help you work by assisting with research tasks, simplifying other business needs such as planning, ideation, advice and more. You can use it to help you draw up drafts for propositions, debug code, and well, anything else you can think of. It’s like having a virtual assistant in your pocket. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be good at any of it in comparison to something like ChatGPT, but at least Google is trying, right?

Compared to its competition, Bard already seems like a lost cause in my not-so-humble opinion, especially when you consider the leaked document that just came out of the tech giant the other day where the author stated that Google’s efforts to maintain a grip on its position is essentially futile in the face of open source. Will you be using Bard in your organization, or do you have concerns about how your users will utilize it to carry out tasks that may need more precision or a more personal touch?