Hidden Gems in Gemini: Design AI Assistants to Boost Productivity

Gemini offers powerful customization features that most users never discover. Gems, Google's built-in tool for creating purpose-built AI assistants, allow you to move beyond one-off prompts and design intelligent, reusable assistants tuned to specific tasks, roles, and workflows.

In this hands-on workshop, participants explore how Gems work, what makes them different from standard Gemini interactions, and how to design one from the ground up.

Through guided practice and real-world scenarios, participants work through the full Gem-building process: crafting clear system instructions, defining assistant behavior and tone, testing outputs, and iterating toward a more effective tool. By the end of the session, each participant will have built and tested a custom Gem designed around an actual task from their own work.

Whether you support communications, operations, research, project management, or any other function, this workshop gives you a practical framework for turning Gemini into a specialized productivity tool, not just a general-purpose assistant.

Learners will have the opportunity to:
1. Explore how Gems differ from standard Gemini prompting and when to use each
2. Design a custom Gem tailored to a specific workplace task or role
3. Practice writing effective system instructions that shape assistant behavior
4. Experiment with tone, context, and constraints to improve Gem output
5. Test and iterate on a Gem based on real response quality
6. Work with examples of Gems built for a range of productivity scenarios
7. Identify additional use cases where a custom Gem could support their work

Topics:
- What Gems are and how they fit within the Gemini ecosystem
- The difference between prompting Gemini and configuring a Gem
- Writing system instructions: clarity, scope, and specificity
- Defining tone, persona, and output format
- Choosing the right use cases for a custom assistant
- Testing strategies and interpreting Gem behavior
- Iterating and refining based on output quality
- Saving, organizing, and reusing Gems across tasks and projects