Google Adds Gemini-Powered Audio Summaries to Google Docs

Google released a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature for Google Docs on Thursday. Powered by Gemini, the feature is dubbed Audio Summaries, and it lets users listen to a short audio summary of documents. The release is part of Google Workspace updates, although it is also available to select individual accounts. The Mountain View-based tech giant is releasing the capability only to paid subscribers at this time. Unlike normal text-to-speech features, Audio Summaries' narration occurs in a human-like natural language.

Audio Summaries Come to Google Docs

In a Workspace blog, the tech giant announced and detailed the new AI feature for Google Docs. The company has already integrated Gemini features across all Workspace apps, but it continues to add new capabilities and tools to help save time. The core offering of Audio Summaries is that it can not only create a short synopsis of a long document or report, but it also turns it into a human-like audio that users can listen to while they do something else on the side.

The feature appears to be inspired by Audio Overviews, which first made its debut in NotebookLM and was later released in the Gemini app. Google describes it as “a short verbal synopsis of the contents in your document, including multiple tabs. These summaries are typically under a few minutes long and use a natural speaking style to help you catch up quickly and efficiently.”

There are some user controls as well. Users can select from multiple voices, such as narrator, persuader, coach, and more. Additionally, they have the option to adjust playback speed or use the seeker to skip forward or backwards. While Google does not mention it, the generated summaries are expected to be grounded in the content of the document and not add any information from external sources. For organisations, the company highlights that there are no admin controls for Audio Summaries.

Coming to availability, Google said the feature is being rolled out to its Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, Google AI Ultra for Business add-on, Google AI Pro for Education add-on, as well as Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.