Google Pics is like Canva, but with even more AI

Google has a new suite of creative design tools for Workspace users called Google Pics, which aims to make editing and generating “professional-grade” AI images less cumbersome for businesses. Built around Gemini and the Nano Banana generative AI model, Google Pics is designed to give more granular control over prompt-based image making and manipulation, allowing users to tap on specific objects or text, and describe what they want to change — features that may avoid the ugly results that chatbots are known to spit out for marketing imagery.

“While AI image generation has been a huge hit for personal use, it’s been a different story for business,” Google said in its announcement blog. “Teams have struggled to create professional-grade images for marketing campaigns, customer presentations, and product storytelling, facing inconsistent results, endless trial-and-error prompting, and cumbersome workflows across multiple apps.”

Google Pics is launching as both a standalone Workspace app, and as an integration for Google Docs and Slides, with plans to roll out to Drive “in the coming weeks.” For the integrations, Google says users can select an image in their document or slideshow to edit it with “Pics’ full suite of precision AI tools.”

Those Pics tools allow users to generate images from scratch or select and edit individual objects within an image using descriptive prompts, which includes changing, reformatting, and translating text. Google Pics also lets users upscale images to 2K or 4K resolutions, quickly crop images into formats for web, social media, print, or digital, and collaborate on designs by sharing them with friends and teammates.

Similar features and AI tools are provided by dedicated creative platforms like Canva and Adobe Express. Given Google suggests that Pics can be used to design posters, flyers, and social media posts — alongside saying it can keep users from “feeling like you need to be a graphic designer to deliver a great image” — Google is likely hoping that Pics will prevent Workspace users from having to use third-party services for basic creative work.

After launching for testers following Google I/O in May, Google Pics is now starting to roll out for Workspace users on Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus plans, Google AI Pro and Ultra personal plans, and the Google AI Pro for Education plan.