Google adds AI, collaboration tools to G Suite via Hangouts Chat
Video: Will the smart office transform the enterprise?
Google is adding bots, artificial intelligence, and integrations between G Suite and Hangouts Chat in a bid to up its collaboration game.
According to Google, Hangouts Chat is generally available, and Docs and Calendar will get more AI features. These features in G Suite are critical given how rivals are coming at collaboration from different angles.
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For instance, Microsoft is integrating tools into Office 365 and separately developing Teams. Slack has gained traction in the enterprise, but it's noisy. Atlassian has Jira, Trello, and recently launched Stride, which aims to give work processes and collaboration a do-over. In addition, Facebook @Workplace has garnered interest.
Add it up and Google has to rev G Suite with more collaboration and leverage its artificial intelligence tools to keep its users moving forward. Google's cloud business now generates about $1 billion in revenue a quarter, with G Suite accounting for about half that sum, according to Jefferies estimates.
Read also: Facebook charts enterprise stack with @Workplace, Messenger and Oculus |
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The general theme from G Suite is that its various integration points can speed up work processes and collaboration.
Google is adding the following features to G Suite:
- Quick Access in Docs similar to how G Drive features recent items and relevant documents.
- Calendar will automatically suggest a room when a meeting is booked.
- Hangouts Chat will be integrated with G Suite so customers can collaborate on Docs and Drive directly in a chat window.
- Chat will support 28 languages and each room can support up to 8,000 members.
- G Suite will have integrated support for Google Vault to archive, preserve, search and export Chat data.
Bot integration will come via G Suite's @Meet and @Drive bots as well as an ecosystem of more than 20 partners.
Partners include:
- Accounting: Xero
- Analytics: Statsbot
- Communications: Dialpad, RingCentral, Uberconference, Vonage
- Customer Relationship Management: ProsperWorks, Salesforce, Streak
- Customer Service: Freshdesk
- File Sharing: Egnyte
- Human Resources: Disco, Polly, Zenefits
- Meditation & Mindfulness: Stop, Breathe & Think
- Productivity: Lucidchart, Zoom.ai
- Project & Task Management: Jira, MeisterTask, Trello, Wrike
- Travel: Kayak
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