Google is continuing to weave artificial intelligence deeper into your email experience. On Tuesday, the company announced an expansion of its "AI Inbox" functionality for Gmail, introducing conversational AI capabilities. This means you can now ask Gmail questions about what's in your inbox instead of typing in specific search terms. According to Google, the Gemini AI-driven feature, called Gmail Live, is designed to help you quickly uncover information buried within your messages.

For example, you might need details about an upcoming flight, the time of a dentist appointment, the door code for an Airbnb rental, or specifics about a school event for your child. In the past, you'd have to enter keywords into the search box—or perhaps type in an email address or domain—to try and narrow things down. However, this approach doesn't always make emails easy to locate, especially when the search term appears across numerous messages. "Gmail Live can answer naturally phrased questions, respond to follow-up questions, and pivot if you need to interrupt it," explained Devanshi Bhandari, product lead for Gmail, during a briefing ahead of Google's annual developer conference, Google I/O, where the feature was first introduced to the public.

This is another way Google is aiming to demonstrate how its AI technology can drive tangible improvements in products used by millions of consumers, at a time when many outside the tech industry are questioning the value of artificial intelligence. New data centers are being built in communities, driving up power bills, so being able to point to something as simple as making it easier to find lost information in your email—a frustration nearly everyone has experienced—could be a practical and positive use case for AI. At least, that's what Google is hoping.

Bhandari demonstrated Gmail Live to reporters, asking the tool a series of questions about items in the inbox, such as a child's show-and-tell project, a class trip, and hotel and flight details for a trip to Detroit. Similar to using a standalone AI chatbot like Gemini or ChatGPT, Gmail users can ask these questions aloud in natural language, and the chatbot responds. During the demo, Bhandari noted that Gmail Live understood nuances between terms like "field trip" and "trip" and could seamlessly jump from one topic to another. Additionally, the AI can extract granular details from emails, such as a hotel room number, or infer which people you're asking about, even when they aren't explicitly named. The company also mentioned that similar voice technology is coming to its to-do list app, Google Keep.

Importantly, Gmail Live is not replacing traditional Gmail search—it's simply another option. Google may have learned that not everyone is ready for an AI-only experience after it "upgraded" Google Photos with AI-powered search, which drew significant backlash. Google Photos later rolled back that feature, making the use of AI optional following numerous complaints.

Gmail is also gaining other new capabilities, including ready-to-send drafts, instant file access, and the ability to manage to-dos by marking individual tasks as completed.

Additionally, the AI Inbox experience, which launched earlier this year, will expand beyond Google AI Ultra subscribers to also include Google AI Pro and Plus subscribers. This feature provides an overview of tasks and items to catch up on that are buried in your inbox, all on a single page. However, the voice-powered Gmail Live feature will roll out later this summer and will initially be limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers.