Gmail overhaul: Gemini AI turns your inbox into a smarter assistant

Google has expanded its use of the Gemini AI model inside Gmail, introducing a suite of AI-powered tools designed to streamline email management and improve productivity for users around the world. The changes represent one of the most significant updates to Google’s email service in years, bringing generative AI features directly into the inbox.

At the core of the update are AI-driven summarisation tools that can automatically distil long email threads into concise overviews, helping users quickly grasp the key points without scrolling through every message. This feature — often referred to as an AI Inbox overview — is part of a broader push to integrate Gemini into everyday Google products.

In addition to summaries, Gmail is now rolling out smarter reply suggestions powered by Gemini. These suggestions go beyond basic “Quick replies” by tailoring responses to the individual’s writing style and the email’s context, with some tools available to users at no extra cost.

Another feature introduced in the update is the AI Inbox, a redesigned view that can highlight emails requiring follow-up or action — such as scheduling decisions, important conversations, or tasks tucked away in long threads. In early tests and limited releases, the AI Inbox has prioritised messages and surfaced to-dos based on each user’s behaviour.

Alongside these, Gmail’s Gemini features include the ability to draft emails, refine written content, and assist with event planning, such as suggesting dates from email contents or integrating with Google Calendar. According to Google support documentation, users can also ask Gemini to summarise threads, find information from previous emails or draft responses, and leverage the side panel interface to interact with their inbox via natural language prompts.

The rollout marks a continuation of Google’s broader strategy to embed AI throughout the Workspace ecosystem, which earlier updates had brought to Docs, Sheets, and Meet. Integration with Gmail leverages the same Gemini backbone that powers assistant-style features across Google services, offering users tools that aim to save time and reduce email overload.

Google has said that some tools will be available first to consumer accounts, with wider availability expected for Workspace users and more advanced features to follow. Because these features rely on AI, some privacy and data-handling questions have accompanied the announcement, though Google maintains that data used for AI tools is processed with safeguards and doesn’t train future models by default.