One of Google's most lucrative businesses consists of packaging free consumer apps with some custom features and added security and selling them to businesses. This is commonly referred to as “Google Workspace” and now offers email, calendar, documents, storage, and video chat. It looks like Google is preparing to offer AI chatbots to businesses soon. Google's latest chatbot is called 'Gemini' (previously 'Bard'), latest early patch notes discovered Dylan Lusay of 9to5Google and TestingCatalog.eth View the new Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise product descriptions.
With the patch notes, Workspace customers will now be able to take advantage of “enterprise-grade data protection” and Gemini settings in the Google Workspace admin console, and Workspace users will now be able to “do work while trusting that their conversations will not be used for Gemini training. You can use Gemini with confidence.” model. ”
These “initial patch notes” for Bard/Gemini are: case For a while now. Apparently, some people have a way of spitting out early patch notes on the site, and in this case they were independently reviewed by two different people. However, I'm not sure if that date (scheduled for February 21st) is reliable.
Normally, you'd expect Google apps to be included in the $12 per user/month “Business Standard” version of Workspace, but Gemini doesn't appear to be included. Google describes the products as “the new Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise” schedule” [emphasis ours] And it's asking existing paid Google Workspace users to “upgrade to Gemini Business or Gemini Enterprise today.” According to Roussei, the “Upgrade now” link is linked to his Duet AI Workspace page, Google's first foray into “AI for business,” and has not yet been updated with new plans.
It is unclear how much of the Duet AI business plan will survive the Gemini rollout. Duet was announced in August 2023 as several “Help” buttons in Gmail, Docs, and other Workspace apps. All of these buttons open chatbots that can control various apps. Duet AI's “initial availability” pricing was supposed to be an additional $30 per user per month, but six months later, Duet AI is still not generally available to enterprises. The 'Try Duet AI' link will take you to the 'Request a Trial' contact form. Six months is an eternity in Google's rapidly evolving AI plans. I have no doubt that Duet will be replaced by this Gemini one. Does it still cost $30 more or did everyone just scoff at the price?
This $30 AI surcharge means a typical Workspace account with AI costs a total of $45 per user per month. It may seem like a lot, but current generative AI products require a huge amount of processing power, which makes them expensive. Right now, everyone is in land grab mode, trying to get as many users as possible, but in general, all the big companies are losing money. Nvidia's market-leading AI cards cost him about $10,000 to $40,000 each, and that doesn't even take into account ongoing electricity costs.
