Gemini AI Email Assistant

Build 3 Gmail automations using Gemini AI in Google Workspace Studio.

Introduction

30 Second Summary

Your inbox is full of emails that need sorting, summarizing, and responding to. Most of that work is repetitive and predictable, which makes it perfect for automation.

In this project, you will build three AI-powered email automations inside Google Workspace Studio that read, summarize, and respond to your Gmail messages without writing a single line of code.

What You'll Build

Three progressively more powerful Gmail automations that use Gemini AI to manage your inbox.

By the end of this project, you'll have:

A daily email digest flow that uses Gemini to summarize your unread messages and delivers the summary to Google Chat.
A keyword-triggered auto-reply flow built from scratch that drafts a dynamic response whenever you receive an email containing a specific word.
An AI-powered email triage flow where Gemini reads incoming emails, summarizes the content, and sends you a notification with a recommended action.
Secret Mission: Add smart urgency filtering so Gemini only notifies you about emails that truly need your attention.

Want a complete demo of how to do this project, from start to finish? Check out our 🎬 walkthrough with Maya

Are there any prerequisites?

You need a Google Workspace account (Business Starter or above, or an Education edition) with Workspace Studio and Gemini enabled by your admin. Gmail smart features must also be turned on.

Step 1 walks you through verifying all of these settings before you build anything.

Verify Your Workspace Studio Access

Before you build any automations, you need to confirm that your Google Workspace account has access to Workspace Studio and that the required Gmail settings are turned on.

Workspace Studio relies on Gmail smart features to power its AI capabilities. If these settings are off, your flows will not be able to read or summarize emails.

In this step, get ready to:

Sign into Workspace Studio and confirm you can see the Discover page.
Enable Gmail smart features so AI steps can access your email.
Tour the Workspace Studio interface to understand where everything lives.

Open Workspace Studio and confirm access

Open your browser and navigate to studio.workspace.google.com.
Sign in with your Google Workspace account.
You should see the Discover page with a "Describe a task for Gemini" box at the top and template cards below it.

Seeing a sign-in wall or error?

Workspace Studio requires a supported Google Workspace edition: Business Starter, Standard, or Plus, Enterprise Standard or Plus, or an Education edition.

If you cannot access the page, check with your Workspace admin that Studio is enabled for your account and that Gemini is turned on. Workspace Studio is also experiencing high demand, so access may be delayed for some accounts.

Help me troubleshoot my Workspace Studio access

Enable Gmail smart features

Workspace Studio uses Gmail's smart features to power AI actions like email summarization. Both smart feature settings must be enabled for your flows to work.

Open Gmail in a new browser tab.
Click the gear icon in the top right corner.
Click See all settings.

On the General tab, scroll down to Smart features and personalization.
Make sure the checkbox is checked (enabled).
Look for Google Workspace smart features
Select the button Manage Workspace smart features settings.

In the pop-up that appears, make sure the toggle for Smart features in Google Workspace is selected.
Double check the second toggle for Smart features in other Google products is also selected.

If you made any changes, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.

Why do both settings need to be on?

The Smart features and personalization setting lets Gmail use AI features within Gmail itself. The Manage Workspace smart features settings lets other Google products (like Workspace Studio) use that same email data. Without both enabled, Workspace Studio's AI steps cannot read or summarize your messages.

🙋‍♀️ Don't see these settings?

If the smart features checkboxes are greyed out or missing, your Workspace admin may have disabled them at the organization level. Contact your admin to enable smart features for your account.

Help me find or enable Gmail smart features

Tour the Workspace Studio interface

Now that you have access confirmed, take a moment to understand where things live in the interface. You will use all three of these areas throughout the project.

Switch back to your Workspace Studio tab.
Note the "Describe a task for Gemini" input box at the top of the page. This is where you can ask Gemini to generate a flow for you using natural language.
Below the input box, browse the template gallery.

Click through a few template cards to preview what pre-built automations are available. Do not activate any yet.

In the left navigation, click My flows. This is where all your created flows will appear once you start building.
Still in the My flows page, select the Activity tab. This will show run history and status for all your flows.

What is a flow?

A flow is an automated sequence of actions that runs when a specific event triggers it. You define the trigger (the starter) and the actions (the steps), then Workspace Studio handles the rest.

Send a daily digest of unread emails to Google Chat.
Auto-reply to messages containing specific keywords.
Create a Calendar event when someone emails you a meeting request.
Summarize long email threads and post the summary to a Google Doc.

💡 What are the three ways to create a flow?

Workspace Studio gives you three options for creating flows: describe it with AI (using the Gemini input box), use a template (from the gallery), or start from scratch. You will try all three methods in this project.

Your environment is ready. Next up, you will create your first automation using a pre-built template that summarizes your unread emails with AI.

Create Your First Flow from a Template

Your environment is ready. Now it is time to build your first automation.

Workspace Studio offers pre-built templates that give you a working flow in seconds. You will start with the "Get a daily summary of unread emails" template, which uses Gemini to read your inbox and deliver an AI-generated summary to Google Chat every morning.

In this step, get ready to:

Open the daily email summary template in the flow editor.
Configure the schedule, AI recap, and Chat notification steps.
Test run and activate your first flow.

Select the daily email summary template

Templates are pre-configured flows that handle common tasks out of the box. Instead of building each step manually, you pick a template and customize it to your needs.

Navigate back to the Discover page in your studio workspace.
Scroll down to view the templates available.
Find and click the Get a daily summary of unread emails template.
The flow editor opens with all steps already built for you.

You should see three steps already configured.

What are starters and steps?

Every flow has two main parts. A starter is the trigger that kicks the flow off (like a schedule or a new email arriving).

Steps are the actions the flow takes after the starter fires. They run in order, and each one can pass data to the next using variables.

🙋‍♀️ Don't see the template?

If you cannot find the template in the gallery, try typing "daily summary" into the search or filter area on the Discover page. If no templates appear at all, your admin may need to enable Workspace Studio for your account.

Help me find the daily email summary template in Workspace Studio.

Review and configure each step

The template comes pre-filled, but you will want to set the schedule to match your workday. Let's walk through each step so you understand what it does.

Click on Step 1 ("On a schedule"). This is your starter.
Set the time to when you want your daily digest delivered (to test it, you might want to set it to a time in the next five minutes!).
Leave the repeat frequency as Daily or Every weekday.

Click on Step 2 ("Recap unread emails"). This is an AI-powered step that uses Gemini.
Notice it is configured to look at emails from "Yesterday."
Adjust this to whatever timeframe you would like to summarise!
Leave the other settings as they are.

Why is there a dedicated 'Recap unread emails' step?

This is a special AI action designed specifically for summarizing unread messages from a time frame. The general "Ask Gemini" step cannot tell if a message is read or unread, so this dedicated step exists to handle that job.

Click on Step 3 ("Notify me in Chat").
In the Message field, you will see a blue variable chip named [Step 2: Summary of unread email]. This passes the AI-generated summary into your Chat message.
No changes are needed here. The variable automatically pulls in whatever Gemini produces in Step 2.

What are variables?

Variables are the colored chips you see inside step fields. They represent dynamic data that flows from one step to the next. When this flow runs, the blue chip in Step 3 gets replaced with the actual summary text that Gemini generates in Step 2.

Test and activate the flow

Before you turn a flow on permanently, you want to run it once to confirm everything works. Workspace Studio lets you do this with a test run.

Test runs take real actions

A test run is not a simulation. It will send real messages, update real files, and set up real meetings. In this case, it will send you an actual Google Chat message with the AI summary.

At the bottom of the flow editor, click Test run.

Click Start to begin the test.

Wait for the Run Completed message to appear in the flow editor.

Open Google Chat and look for a new message containing the AI summary of your unread emails.

You should see a message in Google Chat with a concise summary of your recent unread emails, generated by Gemini.

No message in Google Chat?

If you do not see a Chat message, check that the test run status says "Run Completed" (not "In progress" or showing an error). If the run failed, click into the error to see which step had an issue.

Also confirm that Google Chat is accessible on your Workspace account. Some organizations disable Chat separately from Gmail.

Help me troubleshoot why my Workspace Studio test run didn't send a Chat message.

Once your test succeeds, click Turn on to activate the flow.

Your flow is now live. It will run automatically on the schedule you set and deliver a fresh AI summary to Google Chat every day.

Your first flow is live and working. Next up, you will build a flow from scratch that automatically drafts email replies when a keyword triggers it.

Build a Keyword Auto-Reply Flow from Scratch

Your first flow used a pre-built template. Templates are great for common workflows, but real automation power comes from building exactly what you need from a blank canvas.

In this step, you will create a flow from scratch that watches your inbox for a specific keyword and automatically drafts a reply. You will also learn how variables pass dynamic data between steps, making each draft unique to the email that triggered it.

In this step, get ready to:

Create a flow from scratch with an email keyword trigger.
Add a Draft Reply step that uses variables for dynamic content.
Test and activate your custom auto-reply flow.

Start a new flow from scratch

Instead of choosing a template, you will start with a blank flow and configure each piece yourself. The first piece is the starter, which defines when your flow runs.

Navigate back to the Workspace Studio home page by clicking the Discover icon in the left navigation (or go to studio.workspace.google.com).
Click New flow or Create from scratch to open a blank flow editor.
For the starter, select When I get an email.

Select Specific emails.

In the Has the words field, enter a keyword relevant to your work (for example: Invoice).

What does "Has the words" do?

This filter tells the flow to trigger only when an incoming email contains your keyword in its subject or body. Every other email gets ignored by this flow.

You can change this keyword to anything that matches your workflow later. Common examples include project names, client names, or words like urgent or review.

You should now see your starter configured with the keyword filter. The flow editor shows one step so far.

Don't see the "Has the words" field?

Make sure you selected When I get an email as your starter. Other starters (like schedule-based ones) do not have keyword filters.

Click on the starter step to expand it and reveal all available filter fields, including Has the words, Subject has, and others.

help me find the keyword filter field in my Workspace Studio flow starter

Add a Draft Reply step with variables

Now you need to tell your flow what to do when a matching email arrives. You will add a Gmail step that drafts a reply, and use a variable to make the reply dynamic.

Below your starter, click Choose a step.

Under the Gmail category, select Draft a reply.
Click into the Message field where you will compose your reply.
Type: Hello, I received your message regarding: and then stop before adding the subject.

Click Variables + (or type @) to open the variable dropdown.
Select Email subject from the starter's available variables. It appears as a colored chip in your message.

After the variable chip, continue typing: I will review it and get back to you shortly..

Your full message should read: Hello, I received your message regarding: [Email subject]. I will review it and get back to you shortly.

The [Email subject] portion appears as a colored chip, not plain text. This means it will dynamically insert the actual subject line when the flow runs.

What are variables in Workspace Studio?

Variables pass data from one step to another. When your starter catches an email, it captures details like the subject line, sender, and body. Those details become variables you can insert into later steps.

The colored chip is a visual indicator that data will be filled in dynamically at runtime. Every email that triggers this flow will produce a unique draft with its own subject line inserted.

🙋‍♀️ Don't see the Email subject variable?

Make sure your starter is configured as When I get an email. Variables only appear from the starter and from previous steps. If your starter is not an email trigger, email-specific variables like subject and sender will not be available.

Try clicking Variables + again and look under the starter section of the dropdown.

help me insert a variable into my Workspace Studio flow step

Name, test, and activate your flow

Your flow is configured. Before turning it on, you will give it a clear name and run a test to confirm the draft looks correct.

At the top of the flow editor, click the flow name field and type: Auto-Draft Invoice Reply (or a name matching your chosen keyword).

Click Test run at the bottom of the flow editor.
In the field that appears, enter your keyword (e.g., Invoice) to filter recent matching emails from your inbox.
Select a matching email from the list and click Start.

Test runs take real actions

A test run takes real actions. It will create an actual draft in your Gmail. This is expected behavior, not a mistake. Just be aware that test runs are not simulations.

Wait for the "Run Completed" confirmation message.

Open Gmail in a new tab and navigate to your Drafts folder.

Find the new draft reply. Confirm it contains your message with the actual email subject dynamically inserted where the variable chip was.
Back in Workspace Studio, click Turn on to activate the flow.

Your flow is now active. From this point on, any email arriving with your keyword will automatically have a draft reply waiting for you.

No matching emails found during test?

If no emails match your keyword, you may not have any recent emails containing that word. Try sending yourself a test email with the keyword in the subject line, then run the test again.

You can also change the keyword in the starter's Has the words field to a word you know exists in a recent email.

help me troubleshoot my Workspace Studio test run

What did you just build compared to the template flow?

Your first flow used a pre-built template where all steps were configured for you. This time, you chose the starter, picked the step, and wired up the variables yourself. You now understand the building blocks that make every flow work: starters define when, steps define what, and variables pass data between them.

You have two active flows managing your inbox. Next up, you will use Gemini AI to build a flow that does something much more powerful: reading, summarizing, and triaging your emails with intelligence.

Build an AI-Powered Email Triage Flow with Gemini

Your first two flows handle scheduled summaries and keyword-triggered drafts. But what if you could have AI read every incoming email, tell you what it is about, and recommend whether you need to act on it right now?

In this step, you will use Gemini to generate an entire flow from a natural language description. Then you will refine the AI prompt so it produces structured, actionable output every time an email arrives.

In this step, get ready to:

Use Gemini's "Describe a task" input to auto-generate a flow.
Refine the AI prompt to produce a summary and action classification.
Test and activate your AI email triage flow.

Let Gemini build the flow for you

Instead of building step by step like you did for Flow 2, this time you will describe what you want in plain English and let Gemini assemble the flow automatically.

Navigate back to the Discover page by clicking the Workspace Studio logo or going to studio.workspace.google.com.
Find the Describe a task for Gemini input box at the top of the page.
Type the following prompt into the box: When I receive a new email, use Gemini to summarize it and identify if any action is needed, then send me a notification in Google Chat with the summary and suggested next step.

Click Create.

Gemini generates the flow steps automatically. You should see a starter ("When I get an email"), an AI step, and a Chat notification step appear in the flow editor.

Why be specific in your prompt?

Gemini works best when you tell it exactly when the flow starts, which apps it should use, and what steps to include. A vague prompt like "Handle my emails" produces unpredictable results.

Your prompt specified all three: the trigger (new email), the tool (Gemini for summarization), and the output (Chat notification). That is why it generated a usable flow on the first try.

🙋‍♀️ Flow looks different than expected?

Gemini may label the AI step differently depending on how it interprets your prompt. You might see "Ask Gemini," "Summarize," or another variation. As long as you see a starter, an AI step, and a notification step, you are on the right track.

If the generated flow is missing a step entirely, delete this flow and try again with a slightly reworded prompt.

Why did Gemini generate a different flow than I expected?

Review and refine the AI step

The auto-generated prompt might be too generic. You will now edit it so Gemini produces a structured, consistent output every time.

Click on the AI step in your flow (it may be labeled "Ask Gemini" or "Summarize").
Look at the prompt Gemini created. It should reference the incoming email content using variables (colored chips).
Clear the existing prompt and replace it with this text:

Summarize this email in 2-3 sentences. Then tell me: does this require a reply today, can it wait, or is it just informational? Format as: Summary: [summary] Action: [reply today / can wait / informational]

Click Variables + (or type @) to open the variable dropdown.
Insert the [Email subject] and [Email body] variables from the starter so Gemini knows what email content to analyze.

Under Sources Gemini can use, make sure Workspace is selected so Gemini can read the email content.

What does this prompt do?

The prompt gives Gemini two jobs: summarize the email and classify how urgent it is. The "Format as:" instruction at the end forces a consistent structure so every notification you receive looks the same.

The variables (colored chips) pass the actual email subject and body into the prompt at runtime. Without them, Gemini would have no email content to work with.

Configure the notification and activate

Click on the Google Chat notification step.
Confirm the message field contains a blue variable chip referencing the AI step output (it should show something like [Ask Gemini: Response] or similar).
Optionally, type New email alert: before the variable chip to add context to your notification.

Your flow is now fully configured. Time to test it.

Click Test run at the bottom of the flow editor.
Select a recent email from the list that appears.

Click Start.

Test runs take real actions

This test will send you an actual Google Chat message. It is not a simulation. Choose a real email to test with so you can verify the summary and action classification look correct.

Wait for the "Run Completed" message in the flow editor.
Open Google Chat and find the notification. You should see a concise summary of the email plus an action recommendation (reply today, can wait, or informational).
If the test succeeded, click Turn on to activate the flow.

Not seeing the Chat notification?

Make sure you checked Google Chat (not Gmail) for the notification. The message appears in the Workspace Studio space or as a direct message.

If the test run shows an error on the AI step, click into it and confirm your variables are correctly inserted. Missing variable chips mean Gemini has no email content to summarize.

My AI email triage flow test failed or I am not receiving the Chat notification.

You now have three active flows managing your inbox. Next up, you will learn how to monitor, troubleshoot, and iterate on all of them from one place.

Manage and Monitor Your Flows

You now have three active automations handling your inbox. Your daily digest summarizes unread emails, your keyword flow drafts replies, and your AI triage flow classifies incoming messages.

Building flows is only half the job. You also need to know how to monitor them, catch failures, and refine them over time. In this step, you will learn how to manage your flows from a single dashboard, troubleshoot errors, and iterate on your automations.

In this step, get ready to:

View and manage all your active flows from the My Flows dashboard.
Check run history and troubleshoot failed steps using the Activity log.
Edit your flows and verify changes with test runs before reactivating.

View your active flows

The My Flows page is your central dashboard for every automation you have created. From here you can see which flows are active, turn them on or off, and open any flow to edit it.

From the Workspace Studio home page, click My flows in the left navigation.
Confirm you can see all three flows listed: your daily email summary, your auto-draft invoice reply, and your AI email triage flow.
Check that each flow shows a status of Active.

What can I do from My Flows?

This page gives you a bird's-eye view of every automation you own. You can turn any flow on or off at any time by opening it and toggling its status. Turning a flow off pauses it without deleting any of its steps or configuration.

Check flow activity and troubleshoot

Every time a flow runs, Workspace Studio logs it. The Activity view shows you whether each run succeeded, is still in progress, or hit an error.

Click Activity in the left navigation to see the run history for all your flows.
Look at the status column for each run. You will see one of three indicators: Complete, In progress, or an error indicator.

If any run shows an error, click into it to see which step failed.

What causes a flow to fail?

The most common issues are missing variables, the starter not matching any emails, or permissions not being set correctly. Clicking into a failed run shows you the exact step that broke, so you can fix it directly.

Now open Gmail in a new tab.
On the top right of your Gmail inbox, look for the Workspace Studio icon to open the My Flows tab.

This gives you quick access to your flow activity without leaving your inbox.

Don't see the Flows tab in Gmail?

The side panel may be collapsed. Click the small arrow icon on the right edge of your Gmail window to expand it. If you still do not see a Flows tab, your admin may not have enabled the integration for your account.

Help me find the Workspace Studio side panel in Gmail.

Edit and iterate on your flows

Your flows are not locked in once you turn them on. You can open any flow, change its trigger or steps, test the changes, and reactivate it. This is how you refine automations based on real-world results.

Navigate back to My flows in Workspace Studio.
Open your Auto-Draft Invoice Reply flow (Flow 2).
Click on the starter step ("When I get an email").
Click on Specific emails.
In the Has the words field, change Invoice to a different keyword that is relevant to your work (for example, Quote or Meeting).

Click Test run at the bottom of the flow editor.
In the email filter that appears, enter your new keyword to find a matching email from your inbox.
Select a matching email and click Start.
Wait for the "Run Completed" message, then click Turn on to reactivate the flow with your new keyword.

Pick a keyword you actually receive

Choose a word that appears in emails you regularly get. This way the flow will trigger on real messages and you can see it working in your day-to-day inbox.

Now let's refine your AI triage flow to produce richer analysis.

Open your AI Email Triage flow (Flow 3) from My flows.
Click on the AI step (labeled "Ask Gemini" or "Summarize").
Edit the prompt to add sender tone analysis. For example, add this line to the end of your existing prompt: Also identify the sender's tone (friendly, neutral, frustrated, or urgent).

Click Test run at the bottom of the editor.
Select a recent email and click Start.
Check Google Chat for the notification. You should now see the summary, action recommendation, and sender tone included in the message.
If everything looks good, click Turn on to reactivate the updated flow.

Why iterate on your AI prompts?

The quality of Gemini's output depends entirely on how specific your prompt is. Adding instructions like "identify the sender's tone" gives you richer context in each notification. You can keep editing the prompt over time as you learn what information is most useful.

🙋‍♀️ Test run not picking up your changes?

Make sure you saved your prompt edits before clicking Test run. If the notification still shows the old format, click into the AI step and confirm your new text is visible in the prompt field. Also check that the email you selected for testing has enough content for Gemini to analyze.

Help me troubleshoot why my edited AI prompt is not producing updated results.

You now know how to monitor, troubleshoot, and improve your automations over time. Next up, tackle the Secret Mission to make your AI triage flow even smarter by filtering out non-urgent emails automatically.

Secret mission

Add Smart Urgency Filtering

Your AI email triage flow notifies you about every single incoming email. That is going to get noisy fast. Add a Decide step so Gemini only alerts you when an email is truly urgent or requires a same-day response.

Clean Up Your Resources

This project runs entirely inside Google Workspace Studio, which is included with your existing Google Workspace plan. There are no additional ongoing costs. Decide whether to keep your flows running, pause them to come back later, or delete them entirely.

Resources you used:

Daily email summary flow (template-based, runs on a schedule).
Keyword auto-reply flow (triggers on incoming emails with your chosen keyword).
AI email triage flow (triggers on every incoming email, sends Chat notifications).
Gmail smart features settings (enabled for Workspace Studio to function).

Keep everything running

No action needed. Choose this if you want your automations to keep managing your inbox.

All three flows remain active and will continue triggering on their configured schedules and events.
You can check their status anytime from the My flows section in Workspace Studio.

Pause - I'll come back to this later

Turn off your flows so they stop triggering, but keep them saved for later.

Open Workspace Studio and click My flows in the left navigation.
Open each flow and toggle its status to Off.

Your flows and their configurations are preserved. You can turn them back on anytime.

Delete - I don't want to use this again

Remove all project flows permanently. This cannot be undone.

Open Workspace Studio and click My flows in the left navigation.
Open each of your three flows (daily summary, keyword auto-reply, and AI triage).
Click the three-dot menu or delete option to permanently remove each flow.

Your Gmail smart features settings can remain enabled as they are a general Gmail feature, not specific to this project.

Nice Work!

You just built three AI-powered email automations without writing a single line of code. Your Gmail inbox now has intelligent workflows reading, summarizing, and responding to messages on your behalf.

You've learned how to:

Built a daily email digest flow from a template that uses Gemini to summarize your unread messages and deliver the summary to Google Chat on a schedule.
Created a keyword-triggered auto-reply flow from scratch using starters, steps, and variables to draft dynamic responses.
Used Gemini to build an AI-powered email triage system that summarizes incoming emails and recommends next actions via Chat notifications.
Added smart urgency filtering with the Decide step so only truly important emails trigger notifications.

Ready to quiz yourself?