When AI first appeared in schools, it often meant juggling extra tabs. You might draft in Google Docs, copy text into an AI tool for ideas, then bring the results back again. It was clumsy, and easy to abandon after a busy week.
Google’s latest update changes the pattern. Select Gemini features in Workspace are now included at no extra cost for eligible Google Workspace for Education customers. Teachers and older students on Education Plus or the Teaching & Learning add-on can access Help Me Write in Docs, image and slide support in Slides, AI-created forms and summaries in Forms, and simple video creation in Vids, with Sheets features to follow.
In practical terms, this means that AI is moving from “extra tool” to “built-in feature”.
Imagine opening a blank document to plan a Year 9 history lesson. Instead of staring at the cursor, you type a short prompt asking Gemini to draft a source-analysis task aligned to your topic. The tool produces a first pass: some questions, a suggested marking guide, maybe even some extension prompts. You still need to edit, localise and adjust for your students, but you did not have to start from nothing.
Or picture a busy reporting week. A colleague has been collecting student reflections through a Google Form. Instead of manually scanning hundreds of responses, they use Gemini’s summary options to pull out common themes and concerns, then follow up with more targeted comments. The AI has not replaced professional judgement, but it has filtered the noise.
For many teachers, these kinds of examples feel attractive because they offer time. Less time formatting slides, more time thinking about the story of a unit. Less energy spent drafting routine questions, more energy refining feedback.
However, there are also risks that deserve attention.
One concern is quiet over-reliance. When suggestions sit inside the tools we use every day, it becomes easy to accept them uncritically. A teacher who would never copy-and-paste a full AI-generated worksheet from an external site might still accept a stream of small edits and question stems inside Docs or Slides. Over time, that can flatten diversity in task design and language.
Another concern is transparency for students. If Gemini is used to rephrase student writing, support paragraph structure or generate ideas, how will that be acknowledged. Students are still learning how to write, struggle and revise. They need clarity about what kind of help is appropriate and how to reference it, just as they do with textbooks and websites.
There is also the question of equity. Access to these Gemini features depends on licence tiers and on students being 18 or over. Some schools and cohorts will have powerful assistance switched on by default, while others will not. That can widen gaps between systems and between classes within a single site.
So what can schools do.
First, treat Gemini in Workspace as a prompt for policy and professional learning, not merely as a technical setting. Talk as a staff about where AI drafting is appropriate, how to keep the teacher’s voice present, and how students should disclose their use of AI support.
Second, use the tools to remove low-value workload, not the thinking at the heart of teaching. Let Gemini draft a basic lesson skeleton, but keep human care focused on sequencing, questioning and relationships.
Third, work closely with IT administrators. These features are on by default in many domains. Align the switches in the Admin console with the values and guidelines you agree locally, rather than assuming that vendor defaults match your school context.
Used thoughtfully, Gemini in Workspace can help teachers reclaim time and offer students more responsive materials. The challenge is to ensure that this convenience serves deeper aims in curriculum, equity and student voice, rather than quietly steering practice in ways we have not chosen.