Google is constantly churning out experimental AI features in Google Labs, including CC, an AI productivity agent announced last month. It’s perhaps the most intriguing entry for Google Workspace users into the world of what is known as agentic artificial intelligence. This emerging technology uses AI agents that can take actions independently on your behalf to save you time and effort.
Google’s CC optionally integrates with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and the web to give you curated daily briefings. This early Google Labs experiment opened up to personal Google accounts in the U.S. and Canada in December, and users can sign up for the waitlist here. Availability is opening for Google AI subscribers first, starting with users on the Ultra plan.
The signup process for the experiment takes two steps: enabling Smart Settings in your Google Workspace settings and joining the waitlist on the Google Labs site. Once you gain access, you’ll be able to chat with CC over email and receive daily reports. Here’s how the experimental productivity agent could help streamline your workflows.
What it’s like to have CC manage your inbox
Your introduction to CC will likely start with the productivity agent proving how well it knows your inbox. In my case, CC started with the following standard welcome message:
ⓒⓒ Hi Brady,
👋 I’m CC, your new AI productivity agent from Google Labs. My job is to help you stay organized, get things done and ultimately give back time for what matters most.CC
Then, it veered into the realm of personal by saying “I’m already thinking about how you’re managing your journalism career…” CC’s immediate knowledge of me and the work I do with my Google account was certainly jarring yet impressive. But when you hand over your Gmail, Calendar, and Drive data to an AI agent, that’s probably to be expected.
CC is both an autonomous helper and an on-demand chatbot. Users get a daily briefing that identifies action items, upcoming events, important emails and deals, and more. It’s called “Your Day Ahead,” and it can be customized to your liking by simply replying to the email with instructions. Alternatively, you can contact CC anytime by emailing the address for the agent, which is available in the following format: [your Google username]+cc@gmail.com.
It sounds like a better alternative to Gemini in Workspace for those that use their email as a do-it-all productivity tool. If you’re the kind of person that sends emails to themselves instead of using a note-taking app, or one that uses Gmail as a cloud storage solution, CC will come in handy. It can remember information, summarize it, and search it.
CC has already made it impossible for me to forget the important details by resurfacing them on a daily basis. That includes events and deadlines you might have long forgotten. In its opening act, CC reminded me of a meeting I had set weeks ago, and it became an immediate lifesaver.
The agent includes hotlinks to source material and suggested actions in an effort to predict your next move. Depending on what it summarizes, CC might suggest you reply to a colleague, view a link, or add an event to your Google Calendar. Notably, these links don’t seem to work reliably on mobile, and Google notes this is a known issue in the footers of emails from CC.
You can rate an email from CC with a simple thumbs up or down, or reply to it to ask a question, clarify something, or give detailed feedback for next time.
I currently have hundreds of thousands of unread emails across my various email accounts. No, I’m not proud of it. If we’re being honest, I probably won’t do anything about it anytime soon. That makes CC the perfect virtual personal assistant for me. It surfaces the important details and makes it easy to ignore the promotions and spam, allowing me to take command of my inbox for the first time.
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