Welcome Back to Beast Workflows!

As a reminder, this is a series of expert mini-courses that delve into targeted AI use cases. Here’s the deal:

• Invest just 5-10 minutes per week

• Acquire AI and productivity skills that compound over time

• Transform how you work and live

For more info on Beast Workflows, check out this post.

Let’s dive into this week’s course 👇🏻

What Is It?

Last week, Google launched Bard Extensions, a massive update to its flagship AI-powered assistant. The new extensions enable Bard to seamlessly integrate with an array of Google tools and services, including but not limited to Gmail, Docs, Drive, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Flights and Hotels.

What You’ll Learn

• How to quickly set up Bard Extensions

• Four practical use cases

Why You Should Learn It

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a content creator, or a project manager, understanding how to maximize the utility of Bard Extensions could give you a significant edge in your professional endeavors. The advantages include:

• Efficient Information Retrieval: Gain back time by quickly accessing and retrieving information from Google apps without changing windows or tabs

• Content Generation and Personalization: Generate content by leveraging data from both Google search and your personal files at the same time

• Enhanced Collaboration: Quickly access shared resources across Google tools and easily share Bard chats with your colleagues.

The Bigger Picture

The introduction of Bard Extensions is not an incremental update. It is:

1. A bold move by Google to compete with Microsoft’s CoPilot, which just received an official release date (November 1st).

2. A preview of what interacting with AI will look like in 2024 — integrated and personalized. Being able to interact with your personal data via Bard Extensions or Microsoft CoPilot will redefine the way we work.

A response to the Bard naysayers:

You may have heard that Bard Extensions have failed to live up to the hype.

We get it. Our own tests revealed notable limitations in handling complex tasks and queries, and the tool is overall a bit buggy.

But let's not forget, this is Google we're talking about.

Bard Extensions will undoubtedly improve, and possibly even become a cornerstone of your AI tech stack. Our take — familiarize yourself now.

How to Set Up Bard Extensions

Getting started with Bard Extensions is simpler than you may expect. Here are the steps to help you hit the ground running.

Step 1: Access Google Bard

First things first, launch Google Bard by visiting bard.google.com on your computer or smartphone.

Step 2: Enable Extensions

Once you're in Bard, locate the Extensions icon in the top right corner of the interface. Click on it, agree to the terms and conditions, and connect your Google Workspace or Gmail account.

You'll then see a list of all available extensions. Toggle on the ones that align with the products or services you wish to integrate with Bard.

Step 3: Utilize Bard Extensions

Start interacting with Bard by typing your requests in the chat/prompt box. To use a specific extension, simply preface your query with "@[the extension you'd like to use]." For instance, to search your Gmail inbox, start your query with "@mail.

Step 4: Use the New ‘Google It’ Feature!

The new ‘Google It’ feature in Bard allows users to double-check the chatbot's responses against web content, providing a countermeasure against the bot’s known "hallucinations.” To activate this feature, simply click the "G" icon within the chatbot interface.

Speed Up Your Email Workflow

Bard Extensions can help drastically speed up your email workflows. Here’s how:

Summarize lengthy emails

Simply start a chat with Bard and input ‘@gmail.’ Then in casual language ask it to summarize one or multiple emails in your inbox.

You can even ask Bard to summarize an entire email thread or pull content from several different emails at once. For us, this is where the productivity really comes in 😏 

Draft emails

From the Bard chat interface, you can not only summarize emails but also draft replies. For example, after summarizing a thread, you can ask Bard to compose a suitable response.

Retrieve and attach files from your Google Drive

In the Bard chat interface, ask Bard to retrieve specific content from your Google Docs or Sheets. For example, you can ask, "Can you find the sales report from my Google Sheets and add the key points to this email?”

Interact with Google Sheets (like a Beast)

For us, Bard's integration with Google Sheets is a standout feature as it streamlines data entry, a notoriously tedious task, and makes it easier for users to quickly create and manage spreadsheets.

Call upon data within sheets while chatting with Bard

Simply ask Bard to pull specific data from your Google Sheets, and it will display the information within the chat interface. This is particularly useful for quick data lookups without having to switch between apps.

Export tables to sheets from Bard

If you've generated a table within Bard, you can easily export it to Google Sheets. Just use the export command, and Bard will create a new sheet containing the table, saving you the hassle of manual data entry.

To see an excellent demo of this process, check out this video.

Share Images with Bard

Google Bard's integration with Google Lens allows users to upload images and ask questions about them, providing valuable information and context.

Turn images into tables

An absolute time-saver (especially for students): simply upload a picture of a table from a textbook, and Bard will digitize it for you. You can also capture screenshots of online tables and have Bard convert them into editable formats. Don't forget, that these tables can be easily exported to Google Sheets. Trust us, this is a game-changer!

Ask questions about images

Upload a photo of a historical monument and ask Bard for its history, or upload an image of a plant and inquire about its species and care instructions.

Let Bard manage your receipts

Shouts out Min Choi for this killer use case! See how to use Bard Extensions to create your own Expense Management Assistant below 👇️ 

Start Combining Extensions

To become a true AI Beast using Bard Extensions, you’ll have to start experimenting with extension combinations.

Let’s say you're organizing a team-building retreat to Lake Tahoe (a task that involves multiple tabs), you can now instruct Bard to:

• Extract the available dates from everyone's Gmail

• Fetch up-to-the-minute flight and accommodation options

• Access Google Maps for the route to the venue

• View YouTube videos on activities and attractions in the area

• Create a table schedule that you can share with the team

The kicker — this can all be done within a single chat.

For an example of how to use extension combinations, watch this video by Riley!

Got feedback?

Shoot us an email at [email protected]. We’d love to hear your thoughts on how to improve the newsletter.

Also, we run a recurring segment called Beast Mode Activated.

Here, we will highlight one shining — and ideally jaw-dropping, scroll-stopping — example of someone (or something) going absolutely beast mode using AI.

If you have something worth sharing that fits this description, shoot us an email at [email protected] and include the words “beast mode” in the subject line.