Recently, Google rebranded its Bard AI to Gemini AI, but it was not just a simple name change. This new iteration of Google's AI model comes with more advanced capabilities and is integrated with several other offerings from the search giant, such as Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets.

In applications like Google Sheets, Gemini can be quite handy since it allows you to create tables, insert formulas, and do other things using prompts. In this guide, we'll be looking at how you can use Gemini in Sheets to perform various tasks.

To get started, you need to be signed in to your Google account and subscribed to the Google One AI Premium Plan. Once signed in, launch Google Sheets and create a new spreadsheet or open an existing one.

Generating Data Using Gemini

  1. You can use Gemini via the 'Help Me Organize' button that appears on the toolbar. Click on it to start.
  1. When you click on the button, the 'Help Me Organize' panel will appear on the right.
  1. Enter a prompt like Create a marketing campaign material tracker for a new product launch and click on the 'Create' button or press the 'Enter' key.
  1. Gemini will provide you with the desired output, which you can adjust as per your needs.

Summarizing Spreadsheets Using Gemini

Gemini can also help you summarize the data in your sheet quickly.

  1. In the 'Help Me Organize' panel, type in a prompt like summarize this spreadsheet and press the 'Enter' key.
  1. Depending on how much data your sheet has, Gemini will take a few seconds to summarize the information.

Creating Tables Using Gemini

Another way Gemini can help save time and reduce effort is by allowing you to create tables using prompts. Again, click on the 'Help Me Organize' button for the panel to open up.

  1. Enter a prompt like create a table for a full day team event and click on the 'Create' button or press the 'Enter' key to create a table.
  1. By providing Gemini with specific data, you can ask it to create custom tables easily in this manner.

Generating Formulas Using Gemini

To generate a formula, launch the Gemini side panel by clicking on the 'Help Me Organize' button.

  1. Type in a prompt like create a formula to find cell C1 in range D: G and output value in column G and click on the 'Create' button.
  1. Clicking on the 'Create' button or pressing the 'Enter' key will allow Gemini to provide an output.
  1. When you click on any cell, you will get a pop-up asking whether you want to insert it or discard it. Click on the 'Insert' button to do so.
Note: For each of the above methods, you can generate multiple versions and refine them until you are satisfied with the result.

Using Smart Fill Suggestions from Gemini

Besides generating and editing data, you can use Gemini to get suggestions when filling in data in a sheet. It can detect relationships between incomplete column pairs and predict remaining values using AI. For this, Smart Suggestions should be turned on. The feature seems to be still rolling out, though.

  1. In an open worksheet, click on the 'Tools' menu and go to the 'Auto-Complete' suggestion.
  1. Make sure the 'Enable Enhanced Smart Fill Suggestions' option is enabled. If it is not, click on it to enable it.
  1. Enter the required data in the worksheet. For instance, create a review for various restaurants in table form, rating each option using a star-rating system.
  2. In the rating column, once you've entered the rating for the first couple of restaurants, Gemini's Smart Fill will offer suggestions for the remaining ones.
Source: Google
  1. Suggestions can appear when you're entering or editing the data, and you can choose to accept or reject them as you want.
Note: Currently, Gemini's Smart Fill only works with English values and requires at least three example rows and two column values with text data. It does not work with date and numeric information.

By allowing you to generate and edit data in various forms through prompts, Gemini can help you save a lot of time and effort when using Google Sheets. This allows for a wide variety of use cases and can result in a significant increase in efficiency while working. Just remember that Gemini, like other AI models, requires accurate data to function properly. So, always make sure to verify your data before using Gemini in Google Sheets.