Meetings can be a real drain on productivity, but a new Gmail feature might at least cut down on the time you spend scheduling them. The company has announced "Help Me Schedule" is coming to Gmail, leveraging Gemini AI to recognize when you want to schedule a meeting and offering possible meeting times for the email recipient to choose.
The new meeting feature is reminiscent of Magic Cue on Google's latest Pixel phones. As you type emails, Gmail will be able to recognize when you are planning a meeting. A Help Me Schedule button will appear in the toolbar. Upon clicking, Google's AI will swing into action and find possible meeting times that match the context of your message and are available in your calendar.
When you engage with Help me schedule, the AI generates an in-line meeting widget for your message. The recipient can select the time that works for them, and that's it—the meeting is scheduled for both parties. What about meetings with more than one invitee? Google says the feature won't support groups at launch.
Google has been on a Gemini-fueled tear lately, expanding access to AI features across a range of products. The company's nano banana image model is coming to multiple products, and the Veo video model is popping up in Photos and YouTube. Gemini has also rolled out to Google Home to offer AI-assisted notifications and activity summaries.
However, the stakes are higher with meetings than with AI-generated YouTube videos. Many consider their calendar to be a core productivity tool, and generative AI is not perfect. Several of Google's Gemini-powered tools have shown a proclivity for missing the context of email threads, which can lead to mis-scheduled events. At least in the case of Help Me Schedule, you'll have the opportunity to edit the suggested slots. You just have to double-check the robot's work as usual.
You probably won't see the new AI meeting assistant in Gmail right away. This is a gradual rollout, with the first users getting Help Me Schedule over the next 15 days (rapid release domains). The bulk of users will begin seeing the feature in late October or early November. Google says Help Me Schedule is available to business and enterprise users, as well as individuals with Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscriptions. If you're not paying for Google AI features, you can safely ignore this one for now.
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