
Google’s Gemini AI will now summarise PDFs for you.
Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa via Unsplash
Google’s latest update will make dealing with pesky PDFs a lot easier: Gemini, Google’s AI service, will now be able to summarise PDFs in Google Drive immediately upon opening them. The update supports over 20 languages and began rolling out on June 12, though it may take some days to appear for some users.
The update will allow users to read a quick summary card upon opening the PDF that sums up the document in a few short sentences simply by double clicking the PDF. Gemini will also generate clickable action buttons depending on the content of the PDF itself, such as “draft a sample proposal” or “list interview questions based on this resume” (these were the two example actions given by Google when they announced the new feature). The update will be available to Google Workspace users on Business Standard, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and also users with the Gemini Education plan, or anyone with the old AI Pro or Ultra add-ons.
Until now, Google has only integrated AI into PDFs by way of a quick summary, and this will be the first update of its kind. Gemini has also been made available in most other Google services, like Gmail, Sheets, Docs, and Calendar. Google will also allow users to opt out of AI summaries if they prefer not to use them, by changing the settings in their Drive.
There are also updates coming for Google Forms. Gemini will be able to summarise responses to short or long questions and highlight key points and conclusions from the document. It will do this by referencing the form title, description, and the questions and replies. The option will appear in the Responses tab. Although the feature is currently only available in English, Google has hinted that they are working on adding it for non-English speaking users as well.
But that’s not all: there will be a “help me” feature implemented in Google Forms that will be able to generate new forms based on user descriptions and documents. For example, a company could import a product catalogue into Gemini and it would automatically generate a form for customers to choose which product they would like. This feature is also only available in English currently, and will start rolling out to Workspace users on July 7.