Gemini in Google Forms now sifts your survey responses, so the feedback stops being the spreadsheet nobody opens
By Brett Gavaghan, Founder of Adaptd ·
Google Forms can now use Gemini to count your responses, spot patterns across questions and suggest next steps, straight from the Responses tab.
The short version
- Google Forms can now use Gemini to analyse responses, find trends and recommend next steps from the Responses tab.
- It is rolling out in November to Workspace Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and Google AI Pro and Ultra.
- Try it on your next customer or event survey, and spot-check a few numbers against the raw responses.
Every business has one: the feedback form you were very keen on until the answers came back. Google has decided Gemini can read them for you.
What is actionable insights in Google Forms?
Actionable insights is a new Gemini feature in Google Forms that analyses your responses, pulls out the main trends and suggests what to do next. You run it from the Responses tab.
Gemini writes and runs Python code over your answers, so counts, percentages and comparisons come from the actual data. That matters more than it sounds, because a chatbot skimming a table is a confident guesser, and code is a calculator. It also looks for links between questions. In Google's demo of a networking event survey, it found that everyone who rated the event a 1 wouldn't recommend it.
Who can use it, and when?
Actionable insights is available on Workspace Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, Education Plus, and Google AI Pro and Ultra plans. Business Starter isn't on Google's list.
Rapid Release domains started getting it on 2 November and Scheduled Release domains start on 19 November, with each rollout taking up to 15 days. Your admin also needs smart features and personalisation turned on, or it won't show up in the side panel.
Should your business use it?
Your business should use it on any form with more responses than you'd happily read in one sitting, such as customer feedback, event surveys and job applications.
My take: this is one of the safer AI jobs going, because you can check the answer. Pick two numbers and confirm them in the raw responses before anything goes in a report. Treat the recommended next steps as a sharp junior's first draft, since Gemini knows what people said and nothing about your budget. And if your form only gets 12 responses, you're not too small, it just takes less time to check.
The form was always the easy part. Reading the answers is where good intentions go to lie down.
Wondering what this means for your business?
That's exactly what the discovery call is for.