Gemini’s Personal Intelligence upgrade makes your Google data actually useful

Google is giving Gemini a more personal edge. The company has announced a new upgrade called Personal Intelligence, an opt-in feature that allows its AI assistant to draw context from selected Google apps to deliver more proactive, tailored responses.

Rolling out first in the US as a beta, Personal Intelligence is available to eligible Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers using personal Google accounts.

The idea is simple on paper but ambitious in execution. Gemini can now analyse information across apps like Gmail, Search, Photos and YouTube history to better understand a user’s preferences, habits and past activity, without requiring constant manual prompts. Sounds neat, right?

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According to Josh Woodward, Vice President of Google Labs, Gemini and AI Studio, the upgrade is about making the assistant “uniquely helpful”. Google sees this as a step towards AI that does more than respond; instead, it anticipates needs while staying within clearly defined boundaries.

When your Google account becomes the context

Unlike earlier integrations, where users had to explicitly ask Gemini to pull details from a specific app, Personal Intelligence allows the assistant to reason across connected data sources on its own. That means Gemini could surface details from an email, recall information from a photo, or reference past searches when answering a question, all without being directed app by app.

This is not entirely new territory for Google. Back in September 2023, when Gemini was still known as Bard, the company introduced app connections to retrieve user data. The difference now is intelligence rather than access. Gemini is analysing and reasoning over information, not just fetching it.

Google is careful to stress that this is not a free-for-all. Personal Intelligence comes with guardrails, particularly around sensitive topics. Gemini will avoid making proactive assumptions about areas like health, though it can discuss such information if a user directly asks.

Woodward also clarified that Gemini does not train directly on personal content such as Gmail inboxes or Google Photos libraries, though limited data like prompts and responses may be used for model improvement.

Privacy controls front and centre

With privacy concerns never far from any AI announcement, Google is putting control firmly in users’ hands. Personal Intelligence is fully opt-in, and users can choose exactly which apps Gemini is allowed to access. Someone might exclude Search history while allowing Gmail, Photos and YouTube, or mix and match depending on comfort levels.

That flexibility is key, especially given the scale of Google’s ecosystem. Few companies sit on such a vast and varied pool of personal data, and Google is clearly positioning Gemini’s deep integration as a competitive advantage over rival AI assistants.

For now, Personal Intelligence is limited in scope and geography, but the direction is abundantly clear. Google wants Gemini to feel less like a chatbot and more like a digital assistant that actually knows you.