5 Clever Ways Gemini Can Automate Everyday Tasks

AI chatbots like Gemini have become very popular because of their ability to answer questions, but they can do much more than that. When it comes to Google’s Gemini, you can also use it to schedule and automate tasks without having to manage them manually every time. For example, you can ask Gemini to check your calendar every day to calculate how much time you will have between appointments, or even to constantly check for updates on a specific website. And if you pay for Google AI Pro or Ultra, Gemini Spark can also access your inbox and calendar. Once you have Gemini set up, here are a few things you can try first to automate your daily tasks.

As mentioned in the example above, Gemini is ideal for helping you manage your daily commitments. Ask them to check your calendars each morning and give you an estimate of how much time you will spend traveling between each event. Try a prompt like “Check my events for the day and estimate the total commuting and driving time using Maps every morning at 7:30 a.m.” Of course, this will only work if all relevant apps, like your calendar and email, are connected to Gemini. Just be aware that Google may not consider real-time traffic data, since it will use the data it has at the time the response is generated. It’s always a good idea to check the route on Maps before you go.

You can also ask Gemini to update you on a specific topic, like something you’re personally interested in or monitoring your work. It can search the web at a set time and provide you with a summary of what it considers most important. A prompt like “Every morning at 9 a.m., check for the latest Apple news” is a good example. Google’s own examples often feature daily and weekly summaries like this. However, you can only run 10 scheduled actions at a time. So you may want to save them for important research. You will also receive a notification once your results are ready.

If you like getting suggestions for things to do on the weekend, Gemini can help that too. Ask him to suggest an itinerary with different places to dine every Friday and Saturday. Give him access to your location so he knows where you are and can search for nearby places without even having to tell him. It’s a great way to discover new cafes and restaurants every week. Try a prompt like “Every Friday morning, plan my weekend with different ideas for cafes and restaurants to visit.” Scheduled actions will not use your current location if you are traveling: they will use the location you navigated to when you first set up the action.

With Gemini, you can also set a set of instructions using skills, which replace gems, to remember preferences in different conversations. Let’s say you’re working on a weekly newsletter and you need to follow institutional brand guidelines to ensure the content aligns with brand communications. Simply create a skill with all the instructions and use the command to trigger that skill. Every time you use it, Gemini will apply the branding guidelines you set without you having to list them every time you want to generate your newsletter. Using skills is as easy as typing a command like “/skillname” into your Gemini chat. Google says you’ll soon be using the @ symbol to invoke a skill instead of /.

Gemini Spark is Google’s always-on agent for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, and it keeps working even when your phone and laptop are turned off. For example, you can ask Spark to analyze all of your emails for a week and summarize the most important ones. Not only that, but it can also create a to-do list and automatically add appointments to your calendar. No need to waste time doing all this manually. Just make sure you connect it to Gmail, Calendar, and Drive first—they’re all turned off by default. It’s as simple as going to the settings and flipping a switch.

And don’t worry, because Google says Spark is designed to check with you before taking any major action, so it doesn’t suddenly delete your important emails and files. One more thing: Availability of some Gemini features may be limited to specific regions, so that’s worth checking as well.