Google Sheets is getting an AI-powered upgrade - but you'll have to pay to use it
2023 is the year of AI, and if you're a regular Google Sheets user, you'll soon be getting an AI-powered assist -- if you're willing to pay for it.
Several years ago, Google added a "Smart Fill" feature to Sheets that would automatically learn what a user regularly types and predict and autocomplete what was coming next. For example, if someone was working with two columns of names, Smart Fill might learn they're transferring names from one column to another and automatically fill in the rest.
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But now Google is rolling out "Enhanced Smart Fill." Unfortunately, the feature is only available to Google Duet subscribers willing to shell out $30 a month.
The feature, which the company announced in a post on its "Workspace Updates" blog, is designed to help users spend less time manually organizing and analyzing data in Sheets. It joins other AI features in the Google Workspace like "Help Me Write" for Google Docs and "Help Me Organize" for Sheets.
Using AI, Sheets will now automatically detect if there's a relationship between the data in cells. If so, Duet will make a "contextual suggestion" and ask if you want to accept the new values. For now, Google says enhanced smart fill will help with formatting addresses, structuring phone numbers and emails, condensing text, and more.
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Google offered up a few examples of the technology, pointing out that a sales team could perhaps use it to more easily organize next steps in a sales cycle instead of manually taking next steps from a column's notes, or a charity could use it to write customized thank you notes for donors based on their donation type.
Enhanced Smart Fill is automatically enabled in Google Sheets, and should be available now to all Duet users.