Google Brings Smarter, AI-Based Search to Gmail

Google today announced that it is rolling out a smarter, AI-based search feature to personal Gmail users on all platforms. It will expand to Google Workspace users “in the future.”

“If you’ve ever struggled with finding information in your overflowing inbox, you’re not alone,” a short new post to the Gmail blog reads. “That’s why Gmail is rolling out a smarter search feature powered by AI to show you the most relevant results, faster.”

Instead of simply listing the email messages that meet your search criteria in reverse chronological order, Gmail now uses AI to “factor in” recency, most-clicked emails, frequent contacts, and other elements. And it claims that what you’re looking for is more likely to be found at the top of the search results.

AI-powered search is, of course, a holy grail of sorts. But if my experience with AI search in Google Photos is any indication, it still needs a lot of work. (And I write that as someone accepting that AI is real and can benefit us with many of the digital tasks we undergo each day.) But hope springs eternal, I guess.

Google will allow users to turn off this feature, which is called “Most relevant” search, and return to the old style, “Most recent” search. It’s available now in Gmail personal on the web and mobile (Android, iPhone, and iPad).