Google isn’t done injecting artificial intelligence into your inbox. On Tuesday at its IO 2026 developer conference, the tech giant announced the expansion of its “AI Inbox” functionality for Gmail, which adds AI chat features. This means you can ask Gmail about things in your inbox instead of typing in search terms.
The company says its AI-powered Gemini feature, called Gmail Live, will help you quickly find information buried in your inbox.
Maybe you need information about your upcoming flight, the time of your dentist appointment, the door code for your Airbnb rental, or some details about an event at your child’s school, for example.
Before, you’ll have to type keywords into the search box (or maybe type in a user’s email address or domain) to try to narrow down your search. This doesn’t always make finding emails easy, especially if the search term is something that is found in multiple messages.
“Gmail Live can answer questions naturally, answer follow-up questions, and rotate if you need to pause it,” Devanshi Bhandari, chief product officer for Gmail, explained in a briefing ahead of Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, where the feature was first introduced to the public.
It’s another way Google is trying to show how its AI technology can lead to real improvements in products used by millions of consumers, at a time when many outside the tech industry are questioning the value of artificial intelligence as new data centers are built in their backyards, driving up electricity bills.
Being able to point to something as simple as making it easier to find something lost in your inbox—an experience almost everyone has had at one point or another—could be a practical and positive use case for AI… or at least, Google hopes.
Bhandari introduced Gmail Live to reporters, asking the tool a series of questions about things in the inbox, such as a child’s show-and-tell project and class trip, as well as hotel and flight information for a trip to Detroit. Similar to using a standalone AI chatbot like Gemini or ChatGPT, Gmail users can ask these questions aloud in natural language and the chatbot responds.
In the demo, Gmail Live also understood the nuances between things like “field trip” and “travel” and was able to jump between topics, Bhandari pointed out. In addition, AI can extract fine details from emails, such as a hotel room number or infer which people you’re asking about, even when they’re not explicitly named.
Similar voice technology is also coming to its to-do list, Google Keep, the company noted.
Notably, Gmail Live doesn’t replace traditional Gmail search — it’s just another option.
Google may have learned that not everyone is ready for an AI-only experience after it “upgraded” Google Photos with AI search to much fanfare. Google Photos later pulled the feature, making the use of AI optional after many complaints.
Gmail also gets other new features, such as ready-to-send drafts, instant access to files, and the ability to manage your backlog by marking individual tasks as complete.
In addition, the AI Inbox experience, which launched earlier this year, will expand beyond Google AI Ultra subscribers to Google AI Pro and Plus subscribers. This allows you to see an overview of the tasks and items you want to cover that are buried in your inbox, all on one page.
The Gmail Live voice feature, however, will roll out later this summer and will initially be limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers.
Stay tuned for the rest of the big Google IO 2026 news
Google Search as you know it is over
Google updates Gemini app to deal with ChatGPT and Claude
Google introduces Gemini Spark, a 24/7 agent assistant with Gmail integration
How to use Google’s new intelligence agents
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