Google has pushed a line of new AI features into Gmail, leaving droves of users frustrated as they struggle to opt out.

As part of a wider AI integration in Google’s office suite Google Workplace, the tech giant last week began to roll out its flagship artificial intelligence model Gemini across professional Gmail accounts.

“We’re including the best of Google AI in Workspace Business and Enterprise plans without the need to purchase an add-on,” Google wrote on Wednesday.

A new button in the top-right corner – where the option to switch accounts used to be – now leads to a Gemini chatbot which can summarise emails, show unread messages, search for specific email contents, and perform other broad administrative requests.

Those who ignore the chatbot will be nudged with suggestions to “Polish” or “Help me write” email drafts – leading to AI-generated replies which can be edited and sent within a given email thread.

And while many users will undoubtedly welcome these features, feedback on social media has been less than favourable.

“I am so annoyed that this is being shoved down our throats,” wrote user ‘Kreegrr’ on Reddit.

X user ‘belikewater893’ described the Gemini features as “irritating”, Bluesky user James Swinbanks said they were “utterly invasive” to his work, and Financial Times gadget editor Rhodri Marsden voiced concerns that AI would compromise the quality of interactions with other professionals.

“I really don’t want human communication to be mediated via some automated, highly erratic guesswork,” said Marsden.

Meanwhile, users on Reddit lamented Google’s method of introducing the new integration: a popup window which simply presented options to either “Continue” or “Learn more”.

How to turn it off

At the time of writing, searching the phrase “Gemini Gmail” on X, Reddit and Bluesky shows droves of users looking for a way to turn the new integration off.

Workplace administrator Fletcher Thompson said his “whole team” was presented with “unwanted AI gotchas” regardless of admin approval, while others reported fruitless interactions with Google support when trying to disable the new AI features.

“Google just enabled Gemini for Gmail on our Workspace and their support says we can’t turn it off,” said X user @mbrg0.

404 Media showed the process is anything but straightforward, with attempts to disable such settings as “Gemini app” and “Gemini for Workspace” both failing to remove the Gmail integration.

Information Age understands turning off “smart features” either on-device or in Google Workspace will effectively disable the AI, however, doing so may impact other features such as automatic email filtering.

Further, disabling smart features won’t actually stop Gemini from appearing in Gmail, but will instead render the AI inert and prompt users to turn smart features back on.

For admins, Bluesky user Brandon Sheffield said they had some luck contacting the tech giant’s support, asking for a supervisor, and requesting they enable further settings under “Gemini for Google Workspace”.

Prices climb as Google spreads AI

Google’s sudden rollout of AI in Gmail marks an important expansion phase for Gemini.

The company – which has repeatedly emphasised it is in the “Gemini era” – has so far offered many of its AI Workplace features exclusively via add-ons.

In an effort to present Gemini to more users, Google announced it would now include the “best of Google AI” directly in its suite of business productivity apps, including Gmail, Docs and Meet.

“As we embrace an era of work powered by AI, we believe this transformative technology should be accessible to every business, empowering them to innovate and thrive,” wrote Google.

The company has altogether stopped offering ‘Gemini for Workspace add-ons’ for sale, and will instead hike prices for its newly AI-bundled Business and Enterprise plans – increasing its per user monthly rates by roughly $1.60 ($US1), $3.19 ($US2) and $6.37 ($US4) across different tiers.

Information Age asked Google whether it had received feedback during the rollout, but did not receive a reply before publication.

Last week, Microsoft announced it was increasing prices up to 45 per cent due to new artificial intelligence features being added to Microsoft 365.