AI-Powered Assistance With Gemini

Evidence and data. Interviewees described Gemini as a transformative tool that sat at the center of their organizations’ AI strategies. All interviewees’ organizations conducted large-scale employee surveys to understand Gemini’s adoption and impact, resulting in particularly robust datasets detailing its effect on employee efficiency, capability, and quality of work output. Across all interviewees’ organizations, approximately 80% of employees used Gemini regularly. Gemini usage spanned nearly all job roles and functions, and interviewees consistently reported significant time savings. Beyond efficiency gains, interviewees emphasized that Gemini served as an assistant, allowing employees to improve the quality of their work, take on more complex tasks, and operate with greater confidence and creativity. Interviewees further highlighted the following benefits of Gemini:

• Employee preference and widespread adoption. Interviewees consistently reported that Gemini was highly popular among their employees, with usage extending to essentially all job roles, including operations, HR, finance, legal, sales, marketing, IT, engineering, analytics, and R&D, as well as customer‑facing teams, executive leadership, middle management, and frontline staff. The VP of digital experience in financial services said: “Gemini is really powerful. Everybody is using it.”

• Substantial employee time savings. All interviewees reported that Gemini resulted in substantial time-savings across the workforce, averaging 3 to 5 hours per week per user. The VP of digital experience explained: “Across all business units, the average user saves about an hour a day using Gemini, which is an incredible number. It has freed them up to do other work. We saw a lot of gains from rolling out Gemini, and 80% of our end users are actively using it.”

• Workflow transformation. The head of AI adoption in financial services added: “Gemini not only saves time but transforms entire workflows. Some tasks have been reduced from hours to minutes.”

• Gemini integration into Workspace apps. Interviewees highlighted that Gemini’s deep integration across Workspace apps created an unfragmented AI experience. The VP of digital experience in financial services explained: “Everything in Workspace has an integration with Gemini. It’s woven in and very, very helpful. I don’t have to open another window. In Docs, there’s Gemini prompting right there. In Meet, it can take notes and create action items.” The director of AI products in telecommunications added, “Gemini is embedded in Meet, so I can focus on the discussion instead of writing things down.”

• Improved quality of employee work output. In addition to substantial productivity gains, interviewees repeatedly observed that Gemini improved the quality of work output. The head of AI adoption said, “Gemini improves the speed and quality of employee work.” The director of AI products added, “[Among our employees], 92% said Gemini inspired innovative ways of working, and 80% said it improved the quality of their work.”

• Broad range of AI use cases across roles and functions. At interviewees’ organizations, most employees used Gemini daily across a broad range of use cases, including research and summarization; writing and improving text; translation; idea generation; meeting preparation; understanding contracts and legal documents; data overviews; marketing content creation; and coding and other technical tasks. The senior manager of infrastructure added: “Around 80% of our employees are using Gemini every day. They are unlocking a lot of value. They are increasing their productivity. They are working faster. It creates a mindset change.”

• Clearer, higher-quality employee communications. Interviewees noted that Gemini was frequently used to improve the clarity and effectiveness of employee communications. The head of AI adoption reported that 79% of Gemini users at their company used it to write, improve, or correct texts. The senior manager of infrastructure added, “[Gemini] improves the clarity of employee communications and also makes the information in them more objective.”

• Augmented employee capabilities. Interviewees said Gemini allowed employees to complete work they previously avoided or were unable to execute and lowered the barrier to tasks like creating effective presentations, analyzing data, generating ideas, and coding.

• Greater employee confidence and willingness to take on complex work. Interviewees emphasized that Gemini augmented employee capability rather than replacing it and expanded what both office and frontline workers could take on. The manager of collaborative technologies said: “Gemini is augmentation. It is enhancing people’s capability. I love the stories from our users saying they are more confident and that they take on bigger challenges.”

• More effective video creation. Some interviewees noted that their organizations used Google Vids and said it greatly expanded the number of employees who could effectively create video content by simplifying the process of scripting, recording, and editing. The director of AI products shared that Vids reduced video creation processes from a full day to less than an hour.

• More time for high-impact work. Time savings from Gemini allowed employees at the interviewees’ organizations to focus on more strategic and impactful work. The VP of digital experience in financial services said: “[With Gemini], we’re doing better work and we’re doing it in less time, so we’re able to reallocate the time savings to other areas. We’re seeing it all over the place at the beginning of this AI gold rush.”

• Reusable, lightweight agentic workflows with Gems. Interviewees also highlighted Gems as a valuable component of Gemini, offering lightweight agentic workflows that employees could build and reuse. The senior manager of workplace technologies in technology said, “Gems delivers amazing value.”

• Quality improvements and cost savings enabled by Gems. The director of AI products in telecommunications explained that Gems delivered quality improvements and cost savings in finance and HR workflows: “We use Gems to understand internal budgeting requests, so we have better quality [during the budgeting process]. We also use Gems for the HR personality assessment and there’s a cost savings.”

• Gems improving sales team performance. Sales teams leveraged Gems to improve performance, as the manager of collaborative technologies stated: “We have a sales Gem. Salespeople think it’s great and use it all the time. With the help of our expert salespeople, we’ve built Gemini coaches to help sales. The coach knows their quota, their territory, and it’s skilled in motivating them.”

• Revenue growth. The same interviewee elaborated on how Gemini drove revenue growth more broadly: “[With Gemini, the sales team can] put together quotes and opportunities at a much faster pace, which can translate into to more business. So helping sell more and sell faster — to both existing and new customers — is increasing revenue.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 20,000 employees, 80% of whom regularly use Gemini.

• Users save 3 hours per week on average due to Gemini. This results in 2.4 million hours saved annually across the organization.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for employees is $30.

• The productivity recapture rate for employees is 50%. This means employees convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Risks. The benefit of AI-powered assistance with Gemini will vary based on:

• The extent of Gemini adoption.

• The tools and AI capabilities available to employees before Gemini.

• The number of employees and their fully burdened hourly salary.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $76.1 million.

AI Use Cases With NotebookLM And Translation

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported AI use cases centered on NotebookLM and the automatic translation capabilities embedded throughout Workspace. Teams that worked with large volumes of information heavily leveraged NotebookLM, especially senior employees who needed to synthesize, understand, and act on data as its structured outputs and clear citations based on user-provided sources helped ensure accuracy and trust. Interviewees reported that these users saw substantial time savings of 10 to 12 hours per week per user on average. Furthermore, interviewees reported that Workspace’s real-time translation and other AI‑powered tools upskilled existing employees and supported workforce retention. For example, the VP of digital experience said these features enabled their financial services organization to retain more than 1,000 employees as it integrated acquired companies into global teams. Interviewees further highlighted the following benefits:

• Broad, cross‑functional adoption of NotebookLM. Several interviewees reported broad adoption of NotebookLM, especially among document- and information-heavy departments. The senior manager of infrastructure in consumer goods noted: “We have a lot of NotebookLM users. Marketing, R&D, finance, IT, and operations and logistics are the top five areas using it. They use NotebookLM to summarize documents and information and create emails, images, and videos.”

• High value for senior employees. NotebookLM particularly benefited senior employees whose functions focused on understanding and acting on large volumes data. The head of AI adoption in financial services reported: “We’re using NotebookLM a lot and it’s fantastic. Senior employees who manage a lot of information love it. It orders data and makes it easy to find what is needed. It’s very useful.”

• Support for core business objectives. Interviewees described a wide range of NotebookLM use cases that drove business value, such as consolidating sales enablement materials to support revenue generation, analyzing market trends, supporting legal review, and enabling learning management initiatives such as short videos that lay out complex concepts in simple terms.

• Improved contract analysis and supplier management. The head of AI adoption in financial services explained that NotebookLM improved contract analysis and supplier management: “We use NotebookLM to manage the contracts we have with suppliers. It’s very, very useful for understanding the specific terms. It improves productivity and work quality.”

• Enhanced customer insights and internal communications. Marketing teams used NotebookLM to analyze customer data and share insights across the business. The senior manager of infrastructure in consumer goods said: “Marketing uses NotebookLM for understanding customer data, surveys, and the trends. They [frequently use the] podcast and video summarization [features]. NotebookLM summarizes information on specific products to share with our internal teams.”

• Improved retail and inventory management. The same interviewee reported that NotebookLM enabled an internal chatbot to support physical stores to help improve administrative and inventory management. The interviewee explained: “We have a chatbot using NotebookLM with all the standardized information for stores to get immediate and accurate answers [about inventory, campaigns, and management] without having to wait.”

• Retention of acquired workforces enabled by real‑time translation. The VP of digital experience noted that their financial services organization leveraged Workspace’s real-time translation to retain existing workforces as it acquired new companies. The interviewee explained: “We wouldn’t be able to absorb new companies and employees the way we’re doing [without Workspace]. We’d have to rehire.”

• Upskilling and retention. The same interviewee elaborated on how Gemini, real-time translation, and the broader Workspace suite upskilled existing employees and made their retention possible: “A lot of times when we acquired a company in the past, we pretty much had to replace most of the people to get the skill sets that we need. But we’re able to leverage these existing workforces much easier with the Workspace tools.”

• Broader employee upskilling through embedded AI assistance. More broadly, interviewees said Workspace helped augment the skill sets of existing employees. With AI assistance embedded directly into their everyday tools, employees were able to take on work that previously required more specialized skills, such as data analysis, content creation, and technical tasks.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 10 teams leveraging NotebookLM in Year 1. This increases to 15 in Year 2 and 20 in Year 3. There are 50 employees per team on average.

• Due to NotebookLM, these employees save 10 hours per week on average. This results in 250,000 hours saved annually across the organization in Year 1, 375,000 hours in Year 2, and 500,000 hours in Year 3.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for NotebookLM users is $50.

• The productivity recapture rate for employees is 50%. This means employees convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

• Due to AI-powered translation with Workspace, 400 employees who would otherwise need to be replaced are retained. The hiring costs avoided per retained employee is $20,000.

Risks. The benefit of advanced AI use cases with NotebookLM and translation will vary based on:

• Employee roles and the adoption rate of NotebookLM.

• The extent to which translation and other AI features in Workspace are used to upskill and retain employees.  

• The tools used prior to the implementation of Workspace.

• The average fully burdened salary of employees.

• Hiring costs.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $34.2 million.

Improved Security And IT Efficiency

Evidence and data. Interviewees emphasized that secure AI was critical for their organizations. They said Google consistently provided the requisite enterprise‑grade security, data privacy protections, and control over organizational data across the entire Workspace platform and its AI capabilities. More broadly, interviewees identified Workspace’s cloud‑native architecture, centralized identity and access management, and integrated security model as supporting a strong overall security posture. While interviewees did not assess improved security primarily through an ROI lens, they nevertheless reported meaningful cost savings and efficiency gains, including the ability to retire or consolidate security solutions that were no longer necessary with Workspace in place and significant time savings in administering the platform. Interviewees typically reported that Workspace required approximately 50% less IT effort to manage and maintain compared to legacy systems, decreased help desk tickets by about 50%, and reduced the time required to configure new workstations by an average of 90%. Interviewees further highlighted the following security and IT efficiency benefits:

• Enterprise-grade privacy protections. Interviewees said that Google’s enterprise-grade privacy protections were a major factor in deciding to invest in Workspace. The senior manager of workplace technologies in technology concluded, “We feel very confident in the security that Google provides.”

• The preferred platform of security teams. The same interviewee said that Workspace was the preferred platform of their security team: “Our security team had a big say when we were deciding whether to invest in Google Workspace, and they wanted it because they felt it was easier to secure. Our security team has a very positive viewpoint and is very impressed with the level of security.”

• Secure AI usage. Interviewees noted that these security and privacy protections applied to the entire Workspace portfolio, making it easy to approve the AI tools that were rapidly adopted and increasingly central to how employees worked. The manager of collaborative technologies in technology explained: “I can tell our employees that Gemini, NotebookLM, the whole portfolio [of AI tools in Workspace] is what we are providing because they’re secure. It’s a nice, simple message that I can convey, and I don’t have to qualify it. It’s an advantage that Google has.”

• A unified security approach. This unified security approach also allowed interviewees’ organizations to quickly roll out new Workspace apps or features. The director of AI products in telecommunications said, “A benefit is that whenever we start trying a Workspace application, such as NotebookLM or Workspace Studio or something new, we can be assured that it’s within the umbrella of Google security and we can easily deploy it.”

• Google’s fully integrated AI stack. Interviewees also said that Google’s approach of creating, owning, and delivering AI as part of a fully integrated stack gave them greater confidence in data privacy and governance and enabled faster deployment of AI capabilities than approaches relying on third parties. Interviewees said this approach also positioned Google to innovate and evolve its AI capabilities more rapidly than others.

• Secure, high-quality AI tools and shadow IT avoidance. Providing secure, approved, high-quality AI tools with Workspace helped prevent the emergence of shadow IT and its attendant risk at interviewees’ organizations. The director of AI products explained: “If the company did not take action [by adopting the Workspace AI tools], one thing for certain is that employees would pursue these tools in their personal capacity and that would contribute to shadow IT. ... Those unofficial solutions could have security issues and issues in terms of data leakage.”

• Cost savings from consolidating redundant security tools. With Workspace, interviewees primarily focused on the risk reduction and data protection benefits of superior security rather than cost savings. Nevertheless, Workspace allowed interviewees’ organizations to decommission various point solutions (e.g., tools for anti-spam and antiphishing, encryption, and data loss prevention) since those capabilities were covered within Workspace. The director of AI products said: “We’ve retired security solutions, such as anti-spam. We don’t see an incremental value of having that since Google Workspace already has anti-spam capabilities.”

• Simplified and more efficient IT administration. Workspace was also significantly easier to administer than interviewees’ organizations’ legacy solutions, as Workspace’s cloud-native architecture reduced the need for manual installation, patching, and ongoing maintenance.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Due to the enhanced security of Workspace, third-party anti-spam and antiphishing solutions are decommissioned over time. The cost savings from decommissioning these tools is $275,000 in Year 1, $412,500 in Year 2, and $618,750 in Year 3.

• Due to the enhanced security of Workspace, third-party encryption solutions are decommissioned over time. The cost savings from decommissioning these tools is $330,000 in Year 1, $495,000 in Year 2, and $742,500 in Year 3.

• Due to the enhanced security of Workspace, third-party data loss prevention (DLP) solutions are decommissioned over time. The cost savings from decommissioning these tools is $600,000 in Year 1, $900,000 in Year 2, and $1,350,000 in Year 3.

• Prior to Workspace, the IT team spends 10,000 hours a year configuring new devices. With Workspace, this is reduced by 90%.

• Prior to Workspace, the IT team spends 16,640 hours dedicated to help desk tickets and ongoing solution management. With Workspace, this is reduced by 50%.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for IT employees is $60.

Risks. The benefit of improved security and IT efficiency will vary based on:

• The cost of third-party security solutions and what the organization decommissions given the enhanced security of Workspace.

• The legacy solution and the time required to manage it.

• The time it takes to configure a new device with the legacy solution. 

• The skill set of the IT team.

• The fully burdened hourly salary of IT employees.

• The security strategy and needs of the organization.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $6.5 million.

Improved Collaboration And Workflow Efficiency

Evidence and data. Interviewees emphasized that a core value proposition of Workspace was enabling more effective and efficient collaboration across teams. Interviewees said Workspace eliminated silos and served as a single platform where employees could communicate, collaborate, and work together in real time. Interviewees estimated that these improvements reduced time spent on collaborative activities by approximately 30% on average. For several interviewees’ organizations, these efficiency gains extended to end-to-end workflow orchestration using AppSheet alongside other Workspace apps. Interviewees at these organizations reported that AppSheet enabled the fast development of workflow and automation solutions, reducing app development time by an average of 80% compared to traditional approaches. Interviewees further highlighted the following collaboration and workflow benefits:

• Workspace as a comprehensive platform. Interviewees reflected that Workspace served as a comprehensive platform that made it easy for employees to work together and empowered them to do their best work. The senior manager of workplace technologies in technology added, “Workspace is the central point of all communication, collaboration, and productivity at our company.”

• Deep integration across all apps. Interviewees noted that Workspace applications, such as Gmail, Drive, Meet, Chat, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, along with Gemini and NotebookLM, were deeply integrated within the same cloud environment. This integration simplified how employees searched for information, collaborated in meetings, and communicated regarding content creation and work delivery.

• Ease of use. Workspace’s ease of use helped improve collaboration. The senior manager of infrastructure in consumer goods stated: “With Workspace, people started collaborating more. Collaboration [with Workspace] is very easy, and you don’t need to explain the tools.”

• Faster onboarding and time to productivity. Interviewees also said that Workspace’s intuitive design helped new employees onboard and become productive faster, which was especially important for large enterprises and organizations undergoing growth or acquisition. The VP of digital experience in financial services said: “Workspace is more intuitive than other platforms. It really helps people get up to speed. [New employees] are onboarded and up to speed much quicker.”

• Version control and real-time collaboration. Interviewees said Workspace excelled at maintaining version control, enabling employees to work in the same files and ensuring that anyone who needed access could view or edit the latest version at any time. Interviewees identified Drive as a key piece of this model, as it allowed files to be centrally stored and easily shared. In addition, Gmail, Meet, and Chat served as primary communication channels, allowing both office and frontline employees to coordinate work, share updates, and collaborate in real time across devices and roles.

• Workflow orchestration with AppSheet. Interviewees also described how Workspace enabled end‑to‑end workflow orchestration, particularly through AppSheet, which allowed for fast no-code application development. Interviewees described using AppSheet to build and modify widely used inventory management, HR clearance, and e‑commerce apps in weeks rather than months, integrating natively with Workspace apps as needed (e.g., communications automatically flowed into Docs and Sheets, were placed in Drive, and then summarized by Gemini).

• Faster app development. The director of AI products reported: “With AppSheet, there has been about an 80% reduction in app development time, and we have more than 1,000 AppSheet apps actively used right now in the company.”

• No-code development that reduces time and cost. Interviewees said AppSheet is an easy-to-use, no-code platform that allows end users to directly solve pain points they identify in their own workstreams. This reduced reliance on software development teams and allowed them to focus on high-priority initiatives. The interviewee at the telecommunications company estimated that using AppSheet instead of traditional methods saved approximately $6.0 million.

• AppSheet’s ease of use, including for long-tail and niche workflows. Given its ease of use, interviewees said AppSheet was sometimes leveraged for niche use cases that would otherwise remain overlooked. More broadly, interviewees’ organizations used AppSheet alongside other Workspace apps to address long-tail automation needs and streamline specialized workflows.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 20,000 Workspace users, and they spend an average of 3 hours per week in collaborative activities.

• Due to Workspace, users save 30% of their time spent in collaborative activities. This results in 900,000 hours saved annually across the organization.

• There are 40 workflows or automated solutions created with AppSheet. Prior to AppSheet, the average time to develop such solutions was 2,000 hours each.

• Due to AppSheet, there is an 80% reduction in development time. This results in 64,000 hours saved annually across the organization.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for all employees using Workspace is $30.The fully burdened hourly rate for employees developing workflows and automated solutions is $60.

• The productivity recapture rate for employees is 50%. This means employees convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Risks. The benefit of improved collaboration and workflow efficiency will vary based on:

• The adoption rate of Workspace and the amount of time users spend in collaborative activities.

• The adoption rate of AppSheet and the number of apps developed.

• The tools used prior to the implementation of Workspace.

• The average fully burdened salary of employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $30.7 million.

Cost Savings From Retiring Legacy Systems

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that Workspace served as a comprehensive collaboration suite for their organizations, supporting both office‑based and frontline employees while also including enterprise AI capabilities for all users. As a result, Workspace replaced existing legacy collaboration and productivity systems, enabling interviewees’ organizations to retire those solutions and realize direct cost savings. Interviewees further highlighted the following benefits:

• Competitive pricing and high platform value. Interviewees consistently said that Workspace delivered significant value and was priced competitively. For example, the VP of digital experience in financial services summarized: “Workspace is priced very competitively. … It includes all the AI tools.”

• AI capabilities included at no additional cost. Multiple interviewees noted that having Gemini and NotebookLM included within Workspace at no additional cost was a strong advantage of the platform, increasing its value and eliminating the need to procure separate AI solutions.

• Flexible integration without vendor lock‑in. Interviewees also said that Workspace’s ability to integrate with other enterprise systems meant they could adjust their strategies over time without being locked into rigid architectures and use alternative solutions for specific users or use cases if desired.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the composite organization decommissions legacy systems after implementing Workspace, saving $3.0 million annually.

Risks. The benefit of cost savings from retiring legacy systems will vary based on:

• The cost of legacy systems and how quickly they are decommissioned.

• The extent of decommissioning and whether any solutions are retained in part.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $6.0 million.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Greater employee confidence, creativity, and readiness to take on higher-impact work. Interviewees said that Workspace, especially with Gemini embedded across applications, enabled employees to take on more ambitious work, made work easier, and improved the quality of their output. The manager of collaborative technologies in technology said: “What’s most exciting is the energy and innovation that’s coming out across the organization due to employees feeling more confident and capable with Gemini — and not just feeling it but literally being able to deliver on it. The personal transformation [for employees] is really exciting.”

The senior manager of workplace technologies in technology added: “One of the biggest values of Gemini is enabling employees to not only get their existing workloads done faster and better, but to also begin achieving things that were never possible. There are employees writing code who knew nothing about code; there are employees now creating amazing slide decks and presentations who weren’t before. Gemini is adding new skills to their repertoires that they would not have been able to accomplish prior.”

• Improved organizational agility and innovation. Workspace served as a unified platform that made it easier for interviewees’ organizations to experiment, adopt new ways of working, and innovate as business needs evolved. Interviewees described Workspace, and particularly the combination of AI tools with familiar applications and enterprise‑grade security, as transformative. The director of AI products in telecommunications said their company already derived significant business value from Workspace, and added, “We are still not maximizing the capability of Gemini, Gems, and NotebookLM.”

• AI technology leadership in a fast-evolving landscape. Interviewees expressed long-term confidence in Google as a partner and the strength of its AI stack, noting that there were constant improvements and innovations. The manager of collaborative technologies in technology added: “Google is uniquely positioned in terms of owning the generative AI model they deploy. They clearly have the cash flow to sustain huge development. And they make their own chips. There’s nobody else that has all three elements. They’re a very safe bet and innovate very quickly.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Workspace and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• A partnership with Google as Workspace develops. Several interviewees highlighted the importance of Google’s ongoing product development and collaborative approach. They expressed confidence in Workspace’s ability to deliver additional productivity and innovation gains over time as both the platform and their own organizations continue to evolve. Interviewees also noted their ability to help shape that direction. The director of AI products in telecommunications explained: “We can share our input to Google. It’s a partnership rather than a vendor and user relationship.” The same interviewee had visibility into future offerings, adding, “What I appreciate is that Google is sharing its roadmap.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).