If you are looking for an AI writer for Google Docs, adding a Duet AI add-on to your Google Workspace plan might be the best option.
Duet AI enables the native AI writing features from Google’s latest AI model directly within your Google Docs.
While you might have come across several third-party tools in the form of extensions that integrate other models, such as that of OpenAI, Duet AI is the official integration powered by Google’s own latest AI model (Gemini).
In this complete guide, I will walk you through the steps to enable Duet AI in your Google Docs and get your AI writer sorted.
Best AI Writer for Google Docs
There are several third-party AI writing tools that have integrations with Google Docs. As Docs is one of the most popular writing and editing tools, many AI tools and services enable writing directly within Google Docs, primarily with the help of Chrome extensions.
However, these extensions for AI writers don’t add the same native experience of writing intuitively within Google Docs. Most of them are buggy and can be expensive for high-quality output.
Google, with its Duet AI, has brought the power of generative AI across all of its Workspace tools, including Google Docs.
If you are using Google Workspace already, you can enable Duet AI as an add-on to your plan and start using features such as AI writing in Google Docs.
Let’s look at how to enable the Duet AI writer and how it works in the rest of this guide.
If you haven’t signed up for Google Workspace already, you might want to consider signing up for the most suitable plan before you can enable it.
How to enable Duet AI Writer within Google Docs?
To enable the AI writing features within Google Docs, you will need to add the Duet AI add-on to your Google Workspace plan.
First, you will need to confirm if Duet AI is available for your existing Google Workspace edition and plan.
Here are all the Google Workspace editions that support the Duet AI add-on;
| Google Workspace Editions that support the Duet AI add-on | |
| Frontline Starter Frontline Standard Business Standard Business Plus Enterprise Essentials Enterprise Essentials Plus | Enterprise Standard Enterprise Plus |
If you are a Google for Education customer with plans such as Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, or Education Plus, you must contact your sales representative to order Duet AI.
Once you have confirmed that Duet AI is available for your Google Workspace edition, you can start a Free trial of Duet AI to get started.
Here’s a preview of Workspace plans that you can currently opt for Duet AI as an add-on.
If you don’t have a supported plan, you can, of course, upgrade to eligible Google Workspace plans.
Start your free Duet AI trial here
Once you have successfully started your free trial, you can assign the Duet AI licenses to users under your Google Workspace plan.
Using Duet AI Writer in Google Docs
Once you have enabled the Duet AI add-on for your Google Workspace plan, you can start using the AI writing features in Google Docs.
Follow the steps below to learn how Duet AI works within Google docs.
- Open a Google Doc and click the “Help me write” button to get started.
- The “Help me write” button icon also exists on the left side of your editor, on the line you are typing.
- Enter a prompt describing what you want Duet AI to write. Click Create to continue.
You should add detailed instructions to get better results. Don’t simply ask questions – it’s more than a chatbot.
- Click Insert to insert the text generated by Duet AI. You can also use other options with the Refine button.
You can also use Duet AI to rewrite or ask questions about existing text. To do this, select the text you want to rewrite or ask Duet AI about, and then click the Help me write button.
You can then select an option such as Summarize or Shorten, or type a prompt asking Duet AI to write something based on the selection.
Here are some tips for using Duet AI in Google Docs:
- Use clear and concise prompts. The more specific you are, the better the results will be. Instead of asking questions, give it instructions on what you want the output to look like.
- Experiment with different prompts. Duet AI is constantly learning, so you may get different results depending on how you phrase your prompt.
- Be open to new ideas. Duet AI is not perfect, but it can still generate some great ideas. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what you come up with.
Duet AI Features in Google Docs
Duet AI offers a variety of features to help you write better documents. You can use these options for your existing text or once you have written a prompt and want to do something with the AI generated text.
You can use the Refine options including;
- Summarize: This feature can generate a summary of the selected text.
- Shorten: This feature can shorten the selected text while preserving the main points.
- Rephrase: This feature can rephrase the selected text to make it clearer and more concise.
- Expand: This feature can expand the selected text by adding more details.
- Write: This feature can generate new text based on a prompt.
Expanding and refining Text
Duet AI in Gmail can be used to generate a draft of an email from a short prompt, making the process of writing emails faster and easier.
Duet AI can also be used to refine emails, making them more formal, concise, or changing the tone. The user can then edit and refine the draft as needed.
This can be a valuable time-saving tool for frequent communicators, especially those who are on-the-go.
Duet AI can also be used to generate text for other purposes, such as writing blog posts, articles, or presentations.
Using Duet AI with Other Google Workspace Tools
Duet AI is not only available in Google Docs, but also in other Google Workspace tools, such as Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Forms.
You can use Duet AI to write text, generate summaries, and answer questions in all of these tools.
Duet AI within Google Docs brings powerful AI capabilities to help you generate all kinds of texts and write better. It is really fast, easy to use, and offers a variety of features to help you improve your writing.
If you are looking for an AI writing assistant to work natively within Google Docs, activating Duet AI is a great option.
