Google AI Tools: Gemini, Gemini Notebook, AI Studio and More

Google’s AI tools fall into five jobs. To ask questions and get tasks done, there is the Gemini app and AI Mode in Google Search. To work inside your documents, there is Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet and Chat. To research a set of sources, there is Gemini Notebook, the product called NotebookLM until July 2026, and to reuse the same instructions there are Gems, which are turning into skills. To build with Google’s models, there is Google AI Studio and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, which is what Vertex AI is now called. And to write code, there is Gemini CLI, Gemini Code Assist, Jules and Antigravity. Which ones you can use depends mostly on one thing: whether you sign in with a personal Google account or a Google Workspace account. This map follows Google’s own pages as of September 30, 2026, and does not rank the tools; they do different jobs.

Google’s AI tools at a glance

• Gemini app: a general assistant on the web, Android, iPhone, Mac and Windows. Personal, work and school accounts.
• AI Mode: AI answers with follow-up questions and links, inside Google Search. Generally available to users 18 and over.
• Gemini in Workspace: help in the side panel of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive and Chat, plus meeting notes in Meet. Workspace editions, or a personal account with a Google AI plan.
• Gemini Notebook: answers grounded only in the sources you add, plus Audio and Video Overviews. Personal and Workspace accounts.
• Gems and skills: saved instructions you reuse. Gems on every account type for now; skills on personal accounts only so far.
• Google AI Studio: a browser workspace for trying Gemini models, getting an API key and building small apps. Developers, 18 or over.
• Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI): Google Cloud’s platform for building, running and governing models and agents. Companies on Google Cloud.
• Gemini CLI, Gemini Code Assist, Jules and Antigravity: coding agents and assistants. Who can sign in changed in June 2026; see below.

The Gemini app: asking and doing

The Gemini app is the general assistant: brainstorm, draft, summarize a file, plan a trip, explain a spreadsheet. Google’s page on using Gemini Apps↗ (opens in a new tab) lists three account types: personal Google accounts, work accounts on a qualifying Workspace edition (for users 18 and over), and school accounts where an administrator has turned it on. It runs in the browser at gemini.google.com, in the Android and iPhone apps, and in desktop apps for Mac and Windows. Some limited features work without signing in.

On a personal account, higher limits and newer features come with a Google AI plan, named Google AI Plus, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra. The newest piece is Gemini Spark, an agent that carries out multi-step tasks and scheduled work across your connected apps. Google labels it experimental and, for now, limits it to personal accounts on Google AI Pro or Ultra, for people 18 and over, outside a few regions. How it compares with ChatGPT’s agent is in Gemini vs ChatGPT.

AI Mode in Google Search

AI Mode is Google’s AI answer page inside Search, not a separate app. Google’s help page on AI Mode in Google Search↗ (opens in a new tab) describes it as a place to ask anything, get an AI response, go deeper with follow-up questions and open links to the web. You can type, speak or add an image or file, and reach it from google.com/ai, the AI Mode tab on a results page or the Google app. It is generally available to users 18 and over, in more than 195 countries and territories. Use it when the question is about the web; use the Gemini app when the job is about your own files and tasks.

Gemini in Google Workspace: Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Meet

Inside Workspace, Gemini works where the document already is. Google’s admin page on Google Workspace with Gemini↗ (opens in a new tab) lists Gemini in the side panel of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive and Chat, Help me write in Gmail and Docs, Take notes for me in Meet, the Gemini app, Gemini Notebook, Workspace Studio for automating processes, and Vids for video. It says your submissions are not used to train models and are not reviewed by humans.

Which features you get depends on the edition. Google’s getting-started page lists Business Starter, Standard and Plus, Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus, and Frontline Plus, with some features, such as parts of Docs and Drive, starting at Business Standard. Personal accounts get Gemini in Gmail and Docs through Google AI Plus, Pro or Ultra, again with some features on the higher plans only. How a project manager uses these panels day to day, including Meet notes and the connected apps Google added in September, is in Gemini for project management.

Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM

If you searched for NotebookLM, it is still here under a new name. Google renamed it Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026: the same research tool that answers only from the sources you add, with citations, and turns them into Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, reports and study material. Notebooks now also appear in the Gemini app. What changed, the new usage limits and where Google’s own pages disagree are in NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook.

Gems, and the move to skills

A Gem is a saved set of instructions and optional files that makes Gemini behave the same way every time you pick it. Google is replacing Gems with skills, which you call with a slash in any chat and which Gemini can also apply on its own. The switch starts in November 2026 on personal accounts, with Workspace accounts following in 2027. Dates, what converts and how to prepare are in Gemini Gems; how a Gem compares with a Claude Project is in Claude Projects vs Gemini Gems.

Building with Google AI: AI Studio and Agent Platform

Google AI Studio is the quick way in for developers. You try Gemini models and prompts in the browser, copy the code for your language, and get a Gemini API key. Its Build mode↗ (opens in a new tab) goes further: describe an app in plain words, AI Studio generates the client and server code, and you can deploy it to Cloud Run and share it. Google’s documentation says you must be 18 or over, and that Workspace users have access by default unless an administrator turns it off.

For companies building on Google Cloud, the platform is no longer called Vertex AI. On April 22, 2026, Google introduced the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform↗ (opens in a new tab) as “the evolution of Vertex AI”, adding tools to build, run and govern agents, and said all Vertex AI services will be delivered through it from now on. Old Vertex AI addresses redirect to the new pages. Not every Google page has caught up: Gemini CLI’s sign-in guide still calls the option Vertex AI, so treat the two names as one product. Separate from it, Gemini Enterprise is Google Cloud’s assistant and agent app for employees, with search across company data. If you are choosing a framework to build agents in code, see Google ADK vs OpenAI Agents SDK.

Coding: Gemini CLI, Gemini Code Assist, Jules and Antigravity

• Gemini CLI: an open-source agent for the terminal. Since June 18, 2026 it no longer takes a personal Google sign-in; it works with a Gemini API key, Vertex AI or a Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise license. The details are in Gemini CLI vs Gemini Code Assist and on the Gemini CLI integration page.
• Gemini Code Assist: completions, chat and an agent mode inside VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, sold to organizations through Google Cloud as Standard and Enterprise. It no longer serves individual accounts.
• Antigravity: where Google now sends individual developers, a desktop app for managing agents plus a CLI and editor extensions; see Antigravity vs Claude Code.
• Jules: a coding agent that works on a copy of your GitHub repository in the cloud, shows a plan, then hands back a diff. Its limits and plans page↗ (opens in a new tab) names three plans, Jules, Jules in Pro and Jules in Ultra, says paid plans come through Google AI plans on personal accounts only, and requires users to be 18 or over. How it compares with OpenAI’s agent is in Google Jules vs Codex.

Which Google AI tool for which job

Copy this map and fill in the right-hand column for your team, so everyone knows which account opens which tool.

Job                                   Tool                         Our account
Quick question about the web          AI Mode in Search            ______
Draft, plan or brainstorm             Gemini app                   ______
Reply to a thread, fix a doc          Gemini in Gmail / Docs       ______
Meeting notes with action items       Take notes for me in Meet    ______
Answer only from our sources          Gemini Notebook              ______
Same instructions every time          Gem (skill after the switch) ______
Try a model, get an API key           Google AI Studio             ______
Agents in production on Google Cloud  Agent Platform (ex-Vertex)   ______
Code changes from a terminal          Gemini CLI or Antigravity    ______
Hand off a coding task                Jules                        ______

Two checks before you roll anything out. First, the account: several of these tools, including skills, Spark and Gemini’s custom apps, are personal-account features for now, and a Workspace admin controls the rest. Second, the data rules: Google says Workspace submissions are not used to train models, while on a personal account the Keep Activity setting decides. How those rules compare with Claude’s and ChatGPT’s is in Claude vs Gemini and Gemini vs ChatGPT.

Where the list of work lives

None of these tools keeps a shared list of what the team is doing. Meet notes land in a Doc, a notebook holds sources, a Gem shapes answers, and a coding agent’s session stays in its own terminal. fenbs is a small task board that people and AI assistants share: tasks are features, enhancements or bugs, each with a note for the problem, a plan and a priority from 1 to 10, moving through To Do, Next Up, In Progress and Completed. Paste the action items from a Meet notes document into Add many and each line becomes a task. Gemini CLI connects over MCP and signs in through the browser, and History records each change it makes under its own name. fenbs has no due dates, sprints or assignee field, so dates and owners go in the task note, and Gemini in Workspace cannot connect to it: from Google’s side, only Gemini CLI, Gemini Enterprise and the Gemini app’s custom apps on an eligible personal account take a board of your own.