UW-Madison Google Workspace - Workspace Studio

Google Workspace Studio is a no-code, Gemini-powered automation engine that allows you to build customized workflows.

Keep in mind

  • Enterprise-Grade Protection: Your data is protected under the UW-Madison Google Workspace agreement.
  • Data Privacy: Your content is not used to train AI models and or human reviewed when using your UW-Madison Google Workspace account.
  • Dynamic features/limits: The content below is subject to change without notice as the vendor’s service offerings rapidly change.
  • Approved data types: Public and internal only.

Topics

Eligibility

Current UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students. 

Note: Users under 18 will not be able to create agents with Gemini AI or use AI-powered steps in agents.

Get Started

You can access Google Workspace Studio with your NetID credentials in two ways:

1. Click the Google Workspace Studio icon in the top-right corner of your UW-Madison Google Drive.

google workspace studio icon

2. Go to https://studio.workspace.google.com 

Review the Workspace Studio Cheat Sheet to start creating your flows. 

Features

Workspace Studio is integrated with Google Workspace and offers no-code workflow creation.  

1. Intelligent Automation Builder

  • Natural Language Workflow Creation: Build complex workflows by describing your goal in plain English (e.g., "When a student submits a project request, summarize the details and email the team").
  • Visual Logic Editor: A drag-and-drop interface that allows you to structure the flow of data, including conditional branching (if/then logic), data transformation, and multiple sequential steps.
  • Real-Time Testing & Debugging: Validate your workflows in a secure "sandbox" environment to ensure they function as expected before you deploy them to your team or organization.

2. Gemini-Powered AI Steps

  • Contextual Analysis: Use Gemini to process, summarize, or extract structured data from various inputs, such as form submissions, document attachments, or meeting transcripts.
  • Targeted Data Grounding: Connect specific data sources—such as a designated Google Sheet, a specific Google Doc, or a web link—to the AI step to ensure the agent’s responses are accurate and relevant to your specific task.
  • Data Transformation: Automatically convert unstructured data into structured formats (e.g., extracting dates, names, or urgency levels from a paragraph of text) to populate other Workspace tools.

Note: Gemini can access specific sources. It cannot perform a general search of your My Drive. 

3. Native Workspace Integrations

  • Trigger-Based Automation: Automatically launch workflows based on events in Google Apps, such as:
    • Forms: New responses submitted.
    • Drive: New files uploaded or modified in specific folders.
    • Sheets: Updates or new rows added to a tracker.
  • Action Execution: Perform automated actions directly within the ecosystem, such as:
    • Updating or appending data to Google Sheets.
    • Drafting or sending notifications in Google Chat.
    • Creating calendar events or assigning tasks.

Learn more about Starters and Steps in Workspace Studio. 

Examples

Workspace Studio can be used to create flows such as:

  • Automated Research Summaries: Set up a flow that monitors a specific Google Drive folder for new research papers or PDFs. When a file is added, Gemini can automatically generate a one-page summary in a new Google Doc or append the abstract to a master Google Sheet. Note: Gemini can review specific sources but it cannot perform a generalized search through Google Workspace. 

    • Example Workspace Studio prompt: When a new PDF is added to my 'Research Papers' folder in Drive, have Gemini summarize it and create a new Google Doc with the summary.

  • Form Submission Processing: When a student or colleague submits a Google Form (e.g., for lab equipment requests or survey responses), a flow can analyze the entry, categorize it by urgency, and automatically update a "Status Tracker" in Google Sheets.

    • Example Workspace Studio prompt: When a new response is added to my 'Lab Requests' Sheet, use Gemini to categorize the request type and update the status column to 'Pending Review'.

  • Collaborative Project Alerts: Set up a flow to watch a "Project Roadmap" in Google Sheets. If a status column is updated to "Ready for Review," the flow can automatically post a notification and a link to the relevant file in your team’s Google Chat Space.

    • Example Workspace studio prompt: When the 'Status' column in my 'Project Roadmap' Sheet changes to 'Ready for Review', send a message to the 'Department News' Google Chat Space with a link to the row.

Learn more about creating your own Workspace Studio flows.

Limitations

UW-Madison Google Workspace for Education accounts have access to the free tier and are subject to these limits. Limits are subject to change without notice. AI add-ons for expanded features and increased limits are not available at this time. Open a support ticket to submit interest in an add-on.

If you reach your daily run limit, your active flows stop running. The daily run limit resets every 24 hours. Once the limit resets, your flows will run again as scheduled.

Not available: Email integration (e.g., Gmail, Microsoft 365) and All Sources Workspace in the Gemini step. 

Training

Resources


Keywords:
google workspace AI gemini studio docs sheets forms chat core apps supported agent quick start guide cheat sheet training help 
Doc ID:
160150
Owned by:
UW-Madison Google Workspace in UW Google Apps
Created:
2026-03-23
Updated:
2026-07-10
Sites:
DoIT Help Desk, Google Apps