4/17/2025
Welcome to issue 25 of the Sheets Insiders membership program.
You can see the full archives here.
Today, I want to share two HUGE announcements from the recent Google Cloud Next conference that pertain to us as Google Sheets users:
1) Google Workspace Flows
Google Workspace Flows are designed to help us all automate away the busy work.
I watched the replay of the demo from Next and it looks to be an incredibly powerful and accessible technology.
They showcased a customer support example where the agent analyzed feedback and drafted a suitable email response. It only took a few clicks, no code required.
Watch the replay here (I’ve set it to start playing at the 6-minute mark when they announce Flows):
Here’s an example I want to try when I get access:
Suppose I receive an inquiry via email, where the customer is asking for the most suitable education product to meet their needs.
The Workspace Flow could do any number of things: search my course catalog and recommend something, ping me in Chat for a suggestion, log the request in a spreadsheet or CRM, draft an email response with suggested products based on the email context, etc.
I’m super excited to get my hands on this technology. I have high hopes that it can replace a lot of the scripts I’ve written in the past and add in even more capability with Gemini.
Sign up for the early access waitlist here.
2) Help Me Analyze in Google Sheets
Gemini in the sidebar is now called Help Me Analyze.
It brings Gemini AI directly into your Sheet so that it has access to your Sheet and can analyze the data in your Sheet.
I’ve been using an early version for a while and it’s getting more impressive every day. What I love most is the direct connection to my Sheet.
For example, when Gemini creates a formula for me I can click a button to place it directly into the active cell. No more copy-pasting or having to adjust cell references.
What can Gemini in Google Sheets do?
I asked it:
To summarize, it can
- Create tables and formulas
- Perform data analysis and generate insights
- Build charts
- Summarize files and emails
- Automate repetitive tasks like formatting, creating pivot tables, etc.
- Answer questions about your data
As with the Flows feature, it will make complex tasks much more accessible.
It’ll be available to everyone later this year.
Announcement post from Google Next.
And, more info on the Gemini in Sheets feature here.
One last thing from the Google Cloud Next conference…