Over the course of the last few years, no technology has transformed how the world functions, or presented opportunities for advancement more than artificial intelligence (AI). At Google, AI is in our DNA. As a pioneer in AI, we have spent the last two decades leveraging AI to organize the world’s information, make it useful, and to bring commercial-grade data analytics, security and gen AI to the public sector.

At Google Public Sector, many of our customers are already using AI to accelerate their missions and impact. The State of Illinois has deployed BEACON - a Google AI-based platform to match families in search of mental health support for their children with the most suitable resources available in their communities. The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has partnered with Google Cloud to develop AI models to assist augmented reality microscope (ARM) detection of certain types of cancer.

Last week, Google Cloud hosted Gemini at Work, a digital event showcasing transformative generative AI use cases from our customers across industries and sharing a number of Google Gemini announcements. With Gemini, we continue to accelerate our public sector customers’ missions across education, research, state and local governments, and federal, exemplified by our work with Walden University, The Illinois Department of Employment Security, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and others.

Gemini on Google Workspace

Google Workspace has long been a household standard for the consumer and is steadily gaining in popularity and use across public sector organizations because of its security, interoperability, and ease-of-use. At Gemini at Work, Google Cloud announced that the Gemini app will now be built directly into Workspace, giving thousands of government employees access to their own virtual assistant, while ensuring that the agency’s security and compliance policies are upheld.

We have already seen AI automate routine tasks, freeing up government employees to focus on more complex and strategic work, and we firmly believe that generative AI can be transformative for every employee.

Introducing Gemini-powered Security Advisor

As security threats grow in number and sophistication, we have all hands on deck to protect our customers’ IT infrastructure and data. Our approach to security uses encryption and zero trust controls to build security directly into the application.

At Gemini at Work, we introduced a powerful new security advisor toolkit, built directly into Google Workspace, which will simplify security for agencies of all sizes. Security advisor is a “personal” security expert living inside Google Workspace, offering insights and actionable guidance tailored to the needs of the organization. It includes Enhanced Safe Browsing to protect users from malware, phishing, and suspicious attachments and links, and Data protection to help prevent the sharing of sensitive information. App access protection manages access to core Workspace apps like Gmail and Drive from unsafe or compromised mobile devices, to prevent data leaks.

Deepening citizen engagement with AI

Gemini at Work really demonstrated the promise of generative AI across industries, and we are excited to bring that to the public sector, making sure that it is always secure and founded on principles of responsible use. Government agencies, including The State of New York, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, and Dallas County, rely on Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI to develop AI-powered chatbots to assist residents with various queries, often in their native language.

Last week Google Cloud introduced Customer Engagement AI, an end-to-end application that combines the features of our Contact Center AI solution with the latest gen AI functionalities, powered by our Gemini 1.5 Flash model. Customer Engagement AI will deliver service to citizens across web, mobile, and call center, with a single platform, using text, voice, and images. Conversational Agents will be able to both confirm the identity of the caller as well as answer questions, and will be available in 100 languages to increase access to services for our country’s non-English speakers.

When we collaborate with our customers on their goals, the themes of productivity, security, and deeper citizen engagement continue to emerge. With these latest developments of Google Gemini, we are committed to helping our public sector customers - spanning state and local government, civilian, defense, and intelligence - meet their mission with a fully integrated, enterprise-grade generative AI vertical stack that is unique and singular in the industry.

I’m excited to continue my conversations on the art of the possible through AI within the public sector at our Google Public Sector Summit on Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C.