Google’s ambitious AI investment is facing a significant challenge as internal documents reveal that Gemini for Google Workspace is lagging behind major competitors across critical performance metrics. The leaked presentation, reviewed by Business Insider, shows that Google’s AI-powered productivity tools are struggling to gain traction against rivals like Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and even Apple’s AI offerings.
Gemini for Google Workspace integrates AI capabilities into Google’s suite of productivity tools, including Gmail, Docs, and Google Meet. The service, offered as a paid add-on, enables users to rewrite emails, create presentations, and summarize complex documents. Despite Google’s substantial investment in AI technology, the internal data tracked during the first half of 2024 reveals concerning trends in brand familiarity, consideration, usage, and paid adoption rates.
In the US commercial market, Gemini scored significantly lower than both Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT across all four key categories. Most notably, paid usage stood at just 22%, a full 16 percentage points below its primary competitors. The UK market showed similar patterns, with Gemini trailing rivals in most categories, though it slightly outperformed Copilot in paid usage. Emerging markets like Brazil and India showed more promise, with Gemini performing better than Copilot but still falling short of ChatGPT’s dominance.
Perhaps most concerning for Google is the brand familiarity data, where Gemini for Workspace ranked last across consumer, commercial, and executive segments. In the US consumer category, Gemini achieved only 45% familiarity, while competitors like Apple AI and ChatGPT reached 80%, and Meta AI topped the chart at 82%. One internal document bluntly stated that Gemini was “far behind the competition,” though it suggested a strong Q4 performance could improve prospects for 2025.
Google has pushed back against these findings, with a spokesperson calling the data “old and obsolete,” noting it was collected during the brand transition from “Duet AI” to “Gemini.” The company claims to have since achieved “significant, double-digit gains” across key metrics and brought Gemini to millions more customers. However, the leaked documents also revealed internal organizational changes, including the departure of Workspace head Aparna Pappu and sales VP Bob Frati, with former ads executive Jerry Dischler now leading the division.
Key Quotes
Gemini trails both Copilot and ChatGPT in established markets
This statement from Google’s internal presentation summarizes the company’s competitive position in key markets like the US and UK, highlighting the significant challenge Google faces in catching up to Microsoft and OpenAI in the enterprise AI productivity space.
We have the same problem as Microsoft, just with less market share.
An anonymous Google employee familiar with the Gemini for Workspace strategy made this candid admission, drawing a parallel to Microsoft Copilot’s well-documented struggles with overselling capabilities while acknowledging Google’s even weaker competitive position.
In the time since, we’ve brought Gemini for Workspace to millions more customers and made significant, double-digit gains across key categories, including familiarity, future consideration, and usage.
A Google spokesperson provided this statement in response to the leaked data, attempting to reframe the findings as outdated and emphasizing recent progress. The company attributed the poor metrics to the brand transition period from ‘Duet AI’ to ‘Gemini.’
Gemini for Workspace was far behind the competition but that a strong Q4 could help the company in 2025.
This assessment from internal documents reveals Google’s own recognition of its competitive disadvantage while expressing cautious optimism about recovery potential, suggesting the company views the situation as serious but not irreversible.
Our Take
Google’s predicament with Gemini for Workspace reveals a critical truth about the AI revolution: technological capability doesn’t automatically translate to market success. Despite Google’s pioneering work in AI research and its powerful infrastructure, the company is losing the enterprise productivity battle to Microsoft and OpenAI. This reflects broader challenges in AI commercialization—building impressive models is one thing, but creating intuitive, valuable products that justify premium pricing is another entirely. The leadership changes within Workspace, including bringing in Jerry Dischler from the ads division, suggest Google recognizes it needs different expertise to turn this around. The comparison to Microsoft’s Copilot struggles is particularly telling, indicating that the entire industry may be grappling with a fundamental mismatch between AI capabilities and user expectations. As Apple and Meta gain brand recognition, Google faces a narrowing window to establish Gemini as a credible enterprise AI solution before the market consolidates around a few dominant players.
Why This Matters
This revelation carries significant implications for the competitive landscape of enterprise AI tools, a market projected to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Google’s struggles with Gemini for Workspace suggest that even tech giants with vast resources and established user bases cannot automatically translate AI investment into market dominance. The low brand recognition and adoption rates indicate that first-mover advantage and brand strength matter enormously in the AI productivity space, where Microsoft and OpenAI have established stronger footholds.
The comparison to Microsoft’s own Copilot challenges—which has also faced criticism for overselling capabilities—suggests a broader industry problem: the gap between AI hype and practical utility. As one Google employee noted, “We have the same problem as Microsoft, just with less market share.” This points to fundamental questions about whether current AI productivity tools deliver sufficient value to justify their premium pricing.
For businesses evaluating AI productivity investments, this news underscores the importance of careful vendor assessment rather than assuming established tech brands automatically offer superior AI solutions. The strong performance of Apple and Meta in brand recognition also signals that the competitive landscape remains fluid, with potential for significant shifts as these companies expand their enterprise AI offerings.
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