AI as you might have noticed is everywhere! But did you know there’s now an AI function living in Google Sheets? Just waiting to use cell content, do its AI magic, and save you loads of time!
Here are 3 examples of how it could be used.
1. Education: Streamline Student Feedback
The AI Function in cell C2:
=AI(“Provide constructive feedback on this student’s answer, highlighting one strength and one area for improvement.”, B2)
A teacher creates a Google Form for a quiz or assignment. The responses are automatically collected and populated into a linked Google Sheet.
This function takes a student’s text-based answer (from cell B2) and uses Gemini’s AI to create a personalized feedback reply.
Then the above formula could be copied down the rows, say in column C, to give you instant feedback, to then share with the students.
2. Sales: Crafting Personalized Outreach Emails
The AI Function in cell D2:
=AI(“Write a short, engaging email introduction to a company,, mentioning what our company can do, using the text which is “&B2&”, in relation to “&C2&” industry, and the name of the company in “&A2&”. The tone should be professional and concise.”, A2:C2)
This is a prime example of an AI() function that uses 3 data points (company name, my company info, their industry) to create a personalized output.
A sales team imports a list of prospects and their data into Google Sheets. The AI() function in a separate column generates a unique email introduction for each prospect.
Google Apps Script could send a mail merge, reading the prospect’s email address and the AI-generated introduction from the spreadsheet, and then create and send a personalized email to each person directly from Gmail.
3. Human Resources: Analyze and Summarize Employee Feedback
The AI Functions:
=AI(“Analyze the feedback from the following three questions. Create a list of all positive feedback points in 5 words or less”, B2:D2)
=AI(“Analyze the feedback from the following three questions. Create a list of all negative or constructive feedback points in 5 words or less.”, B2:D2)
Automatically synthesize employee feedback from multiple questions, separating the positive from the negative points for a concise manager summary.
This function is more sophisticated than a simple summarizer. It uses a multi-part prompt to direct the AI to perform two distinct tasks—identifying and listing positive feedback, and doing the same for negative feedback. It’s a great example of how you can structure your prompt to get a very specific, multi-part output.
An HR team creates a feedback Google Form with three open-ended questions (e.g., “What went well this quarter?”, “What were the biggest challenges?”, “How can we improve?”). The responses are collected in a Google Sheet.
The AI() function then processes the text from the three response columns (B2, C2, D2) and generates the summary.
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