Checked by Hanny Ramzy on 24 September 2026. Drafted with AI help, then checked against our own tests and Google's help pages.
Gemini is Google’s AI assistant, built into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet and the other Google Workspace apps. This guide shows how it handles the everyday work of a Malaysian office: replying to a customer with a quotation, drafting a staff notice, totalling a sales sheet and writing up a meeting. It also covers what works in Malay today, what happens to your company data and where the settings are.
Gemini comes with every Google Workspace Business plan, but not every feature is on every plan. Where a task needs Business Standard or higher, we say so. For the full plan-by-plan comparison and prices, see our Gemini for business page.
What Gemini does in each app
Gemini sits inside the apps your staff already use, behind a star-shaped Ask Gemini icon at the top right of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive. Here is what it does in each one, with an everyday task for each.
Gmail: draft a quotation email
Say a customer has asked for a price on 20 office chairs, and the quotation PDF is ready. In a reply, type a prompt into the Help me write bar, such as “Thank Encik Faizal for his enquiry, say the quotation for 20 office chairs is attached and is valid for 30 days”. Gemini writes the draft straight into the email.
You can then refine it. Type an instruction such as “Make it shorter” into Describe your change, click Polish, or choose Formalize, Friendly or Shorten from the menu.
Gemini may fill in details from your other emails and Drive files. Check every name, price and date before you send. The same Gmail panel can also do the following on every Business plan:
- Summarise a long email thread in the Ask Gemini side panel.
- Suggest a full reply, when your Google Account language is English.
- Proofread your draft for grammar and tone, in English and Spanish.
Help me schedule, which suggests meeting times inside an email, needs Business Standard or higher. Step-by-step guide: Gemini in Gmail.
Docs: first drafts and summaries
In a blank Google Doc, describe what you need in the Gemini box at the bottom of the page. For example: “Write a one-page notice to staff about office hours during the Deepavali holiday week.” Gemini writes a first draft that you then edit.
For a document you already have, select some text and click Refine. Options include Rephrase, Shorten, More formal, Bulletize and Summarize. To condense a long tender document or policy, open Ask Gemini and type “Summarise this document in five bullet points”. Your colleagues cannot see Gemini’s suggestions in a shared file until you accept them.
Gemini in Docs needs Business Standard or higher. Guide: Gemini in Google Docs.
Sheets: the formula you would otherwise search for
Most offices have a sales sheet where someone needs a total by product and cannot remember the formula. In Sheets, open Ask Gemini and ask in plain words, using your column names. In the example below we asked for the total of the Sales (RM) column where the product is Kopi Tarik. Gemini wrote the SUMIF formula, and Insert put it in the selected cell.
Gemini in Sheets can do more than formulas. It can also:
- Build a table from a description, such as an order tracker with date, customer, item, amount in RM and status.
- Explain or fix a formula that shows an error.
- Answer questions about your data and make a chart. The chart goes into a new tab with its own copy of the data, so it does not update when you change the original rows.
- Fill a column with the
=AI()function, for example to sort customer comments into positive, negative or neutral.
It works on Google Sheets files, so save an Excel file as a Google Sheet first. Gemini in Sheets needs Business Standard or higher. Guide: Gemini in Google Sheets.
Meet: meeting notes written for you
With Take notes with Gemini, Gemini writes a summary of a Google Meet call into a Google Doc, with decisions and next steps. After the meeting, the organiser gets an email with a link. The Doc is saved in the organiser’s Drive and has two tabs: Quick notes with key points and action items, and Full notes with more detail.
Three things matter for Malaysian teams. First, the meeting organiser needs Business Standard or higher. Second, Malay is not a supported meeting language yet (more on that below). Third, tell everyone that notes are being taken. Meet also shows a pencil icon to all participants.
Admins should also check the Automatic note-taking setting. Google says it applies from 21 September 2026 to hosted meetings with three or more guests, so Gemini may already be taking notes in larger meetings without anyone clicking a button. If you do not want that, change the setting. Guide: Take notes with Gemini.
The Gemini app, Gems and Gemini Notebook
Every Business plan also includes three tools outside the main apps:
- The Gemini app at gemini.google.com, a chat assistant covered by your company’s Workspace agreement when you sign in with your work email. See use the Gemini app with your work account.
- Gems, saved versions of Gemini with your own instructions, for repeat jobs such as replying to customer enquiries in your company’s tone. See create and share a Gem.
- Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM), which answers questions from files you give it, with citations back to the source. It is useful for questions like “What are the payment terms in these three contracts?” See Gemini Notebook for work.
Which plan you need for each task
The tasks above split into two groups. Gemini in Gmail, the Gemini app, Gems and Gemini Notebook work on every Business plan, including Business Starter. Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive and Chat, Help me schedule in Gmail and Take notes with Gemini in Meet need Business Standard or higher. Higher plans also get higher usage limits, which Google sets and changes from time to time.
One plan runs the whole company account, so an upgrade to Business Standard moves every user, not just the staff who want Gemini in Docs or Meet. The full feature table with Ringgit prices is on our Gemini for business page, and we explain the one-plan rule in can you mix Google Workspace plans?
Malay language support today
Language support differs from feature to feature, and it matters for teams who work mainly in Bahasa Melayu. This is where things stand as of September 2026:
- Gemini in Docs: supports Malay. Google added Malay, Mandarin and other languages to the main Docs features in July 2026. Some newer features may start in English first.
- Help me write in Gmail: not in Malay yet. Writing your prompt in English and asking for a reply in Malay may work, but check the result carefully.
- Suggested replies in Gmail: only appear when your Google Account language is English.
- Proofread in Gmail: English and Spanish only.
- Take notes with Gemini in Meet: not in Malay yet. Google supports English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, one language per meeting. A meeting held mostly in Malay, or one that switches between languages, may give poor notes or none.
- Gemini Notebook Audio Overviews: available in more than 80 languages, including Malay.
If most of your meetings are in Malay, do not upgrade for Meet notes alone yet. Docs is where Malay-speaking teams get the most from Gemini today.
What happens to your company data
When staff use Gemini with their work account, Google treats prompts and answers as your company’s data, under the same agreement as your Gmail and Drive. Google’s Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub sets out its commitments, and the main ones are these:
- No model training. Your prompts, files, emails and Gemini’s answers are not reviewed by people or used to train Google’s AI models outside your organisation without your permission. This is written into the Workspace Service Specific Terms.
- It stays in your organisation. Gemini does not share prompts or answers with other users or other organisations.
- It follows your existing permissions. Gemini only reads emails, files and chats the signed-in person can already open. It cannot show a clerk the director’s files unless the clerk already has access to them.
There are a few limits to know about:
- Personal accounts are different. Gemini on a personal Gmail account follows Google’s consumer terms, and chats there may be reviewed by humans. Company information belongs in the work account only.
- Gemini Notebook copies files. Drive files added to a notebook are copied into Gemini Notebook, and your data region settings do not apply to that copy.
- Feedback goes to Google. If you rate an answer and include your prompt, people at Google may read it, so leave confidential details out.
If a file is shared with the wrong people, fix the sharing. Gemini cannot see more than the person using it. The full detail is in how Gemini handles your company data.
How to turn Gemini on or off
There are two levels of control: each user’s own settings, and the admin’s settings for the whole company.
For each user, Gemini in Gmail, Docs and the other apps only works when Workspace smart features are on. In Gmail, go to Settings > See all settings > General, tick Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet, then turn on Smart features in Google Workspace under Manage Workspace smart feature settings. If Gemini is on your plan but you cannot see it, this is usually why.
For admins, the controls are in the Google Admin console under Generative AI. What you can switch depends on your plan:
- Every Business plan: turn the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook on or off for everyone or one department, decide how long Gemini chats are kept, and set a default for smart features.
- Business Standard and Plus: also turn Gemini note-taking in Meet on or off, including automatic note-taking.
- Enterprise Standard and Plus only: turn Gemini on or off separately in Gmail, Docs, Meet and the other apps.
On Business plans the smart features default is a starting point, not a lock, because users can change it in their own Gmail settings. Turning smart features off also turns off older features such as Smart Compose. Google says most changes take effect within minutes but can take up to 24 hours. The full steps, with screenshots, are in turn Gemini on or off.
Should you upgrade? A quick decision guide
Upgrading is a whole-company decision, because every user moves to the new plan. These questions should help you decide.
Business Starter is probably enough if:
- Your staff mainly send email and want help drafting and summarising it.
- The Gemini app and Gemini Notebook cover the rest of what they would ask an AI to do.
- Most of your meetings are held in Malay, so Meet notes would not help yet.
Business Standard is worth pricing if:
- Staff write documents, proposals or reports in Google Docs every week.
- Someone spends time building or fixing spreadsheet formulas and reports.
- You run regular meetings in English and nobody enjoys taking the minutes.
- Staff often reach the usage limits in the Gemini app or Gemini Notebook.
To see what the upgrade costs for your headcount, use our Google Workspace price calculator. The upgrade itself is arranged through us rather than in the Admin console. See licences and renewal.
Before you rely on it
Gemini can make mistakes. Treat everything it writes as a first draft, and check names, amounts, dates and anything legal or financial before it goes to a customer, a supplier or LHDN. Meeting notes can miss or mishear things too, so read them before you forward them.
How we checked this guide
The screenshots come from our own Google Workspace test account, using sample data, in September 2026. The facts come from Google’s official Workspace help pages, which we also used for the step-by-step Gemini guides in our help centre.
We drafted this guide with AI help. Hanny Ramzy then checked every feature, plan limit and menu name against our own tests and Google’s help pages on 24 September 2026. Google changes Gemini features and limits often, so we will update this page when they change.
Next steps
To compare what each plan includes, with prices in Ringgit and short videos of Gemini at work, see our Gemini for business page. If you are ready to move to Google Workspace or change plan, request a quote and we will size it for your team.
Hanny RamzyHanny Ramzy runs Office Niaga at Web Impian Sdn. Bhd. (SSM 920163-H) in Kota Bharu, Malaysia, helping businesses and agencies move to Google Workspace and business email with Ringgit billing and local support.