Chloe ThompsonGoogle announced sweeping updates to Google Slides at its Cloud Next 2026 conference this week, including the ability to convert presentations directly into AI-generated videos using custom avatars, deep integration with Gemini Enterprise for real-time document intelligence, and a new Workspace Intelligence layer that understands the semantic relationships between your files, collaborators, and projects. For Australian businesses that rely on Google Workspace — and there are millions of them — the update is significant. But it also raises a question that IT professionals and business owners increasingly need to answer: are your teams equipped to use these tools securely and productively?
What Google Announced at Cloud Next 2026
The Google Workspace updates announced in late April and May 2026 represent the most substantial expansion of Slides' capabilities since the product launched. The key changes relevant to business users include:
Presentation-to-Video with AI Avatars. Google Slides presentations can now be converted into full videos with AI-generated presenters. The feature supports 24 languages and allows custom avatar creation with consistent appearance and voice across scenes. For Australian businesses with remote or international teams, this opens up new possibilities for training content, product demos, and customer-facing communications — without the cost of video production.
Gemini Enterprise Integration. The Gemini AI assistant, previously available as a separate add-on, now integrates directly into canvas mode within Google Workspace. Users can schedule Google Calendar meetings, create and edit Docs and Slides, and search across their entire Workspace from a single interface. The practical implication is that routine administrative tasks — building a presentation from meeting notes, turning a slide deck into an email summary — can now be automated.
Workspace Intelligence. Google's new Workspace Intelligence layer analyses semantic relationships across an organisation's entire document corpus: who works with whom, which projects are active, and what domain knowledge exists within a team. This is not simply keyword search — it is contextual understanding at scale.
The Security Implications Businesses Cannot Ignore
Every expansion of AI capability within enterprise software introduces new attack surfaces and data governance questions. Australian IT professionals need to understand these implications before enabling new Workspace features across their organisations.
Data residency. Australian businesses subject to the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) must understand where their data is processed when using Gemini features. Google offers data residency controls under its Workspace Enterprise plans, but these settings must be actively configured — they are not enabled by default. An IT specialist can audit your current Workspace configuration and ensure data processing complies with your obligations.
AI-generated content and accuracy. Gemini-generated text and avatar presentations can contain errors, hallucinations, or outdated information. For businesses in regulated industries — legal, financial services, healthcare — this creates compliance risk if AI-generated materials are used in client-facing contexts without human review. Establishing internal governance policies around AI content approval is now a business necessity, not a future consideration.
Permissions and access management. As AI agents gain the ability to create, edit, and share documents on behalf of users, organisations must audit their existing access control policies. Shared drives with overly permissive settings can become a significant liability if an AI agent inadvertently shares sensitive documents based on a misconfigured permission.
Third-party app integrations. Many Australian businesses use third-party applications connected to their Google Workspace environment via OAuth. As Workspace Intelligence begins to understand and act across the entire document corpus, the risk profile of each connected application increases. An annual review of authorised third-party apps is now essential hygiene.
How Australian SMBs Can Take Advantage Without Exposing Themselves
The Google Workspace AI updates are particularly relevant to Australian small and medium-sized businesses, which often lack dedicated IT departments but handle significant volumes of sensitive client and operational data.
Practical steps for Australian business owners and operators include:
1. Audit your current Workspace plan. Gemini Enterprise features are not available on all Workspace tiers. Understanding which features you have access to — and which require an upgrade — is the starting point for any technology decision.
2. Enable phased rollouts. Google Workspace Admin allows administrators to enable new features for specific organisational units before a full rollout. Testing AI Slides features with a small pilot group allows businesses to assess productivity gains and identify issues before deploying broadly.
3. Review data processing agreements. If your business handles personal information as defined under the Privacy Act, your Google Workspace Data Processing Amendment should be reviewed to confirm it covers the new AI processing activities. This is a task for a legal or IT compliance adviser, not a general IT technician.
4. Train staff on AI content governance. The most significant risk in enterprise AI adoption is not a data breach — it is undetected errors in AI-generated content being acted upon as though they were human-reviewed. Training staff to treat AI output as a first draft, not a finished product, reduces this risk substantially.
5. Consider a Workspace security audit. As the capability surface of Google Workspace expands, so does the value of a formal security review. An IT specialist can benchmark your current configuration against Google's own security health recommendations and the Australian Cyber Security Centre's Essential Eight framework.
The Bigger Picture: AI Is Now a Default Enterprise Feature
The Google Slides announcement at Cloud Next 2026 is part of a broader pattern. Microsoft Copilot, Apple Intelligence, and Google Gemini are each embedding AI capability directly into the productivity tools that Australian workers use every day. By the end of 2026, AI-assisted content creation will be a default feature of virtually every major enterprise software platform.
For Australian businesses, the question is no longer whether to engage with AI productivity tools — it is how to do so in a way that maintains security, complies with privacy obligations, and produces reliable outputs. That requires specialist guidance, not just software updates.
If your business uses Google Workspace and you want to understand what the latest Gemini and Slides updates mean for your operations, connecting with an IT specialist through ExpertZoom can help you make informed decisions about adoption, configuration, and governance.
Source: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — The Privacy Act
