Add your rules and an audit trail to the work staff start in Gemini.
GovAI is the AI work platform for local government.
Gemini can find last spring’s permit emails in Gmail. Deciding which ones you can release under a records request takes your exemptions and your retention schedule. GovAI comes set up for local government, with guardrails built in and an audit trail IT can check.
The gap
What Gemini doesn’t know about your government.
Gemini sits inside Gmail, Docs, and Drive, and it can read whatever a staff member can open. It doesn’t know your ordinances and bylaws, your retention schedule, or your exemptions. It can’t tell the approved policy from last year’s draft sitting in the same folder. Every Gem and agent starts blank, so someone on your staff has to write the rules, test them, and keep them current.
Gemini answers inside Google Search through AI Mode, so staff are likely using it today.
What you need instead
Staff start on day one with the local government work already set up.
GovAI comes with ready-made skills for government, guardrails, and admin controls. We build and run your first Agents with you, starting with the job that piles up most, like records requests, agenda packets, or policy answers. Staff spend the first month on the work itself.
Already part of GovAI
- Ready-made skills for government
- Everyday Agents built and run by GovAI, like bylaw lookups and meeting minutes
- Specialist Agents for records requests and staff reports, priced by the job
- Data Shield, which flags or blocks sensitive information as staff type
- Single sign-on, admin controls, and an audit trail
- Onboarding and coaching by department
What you’d build yourself with Gemini
- A Gem or agent for each workflow, written and tested by your team
- Retention rules and exemption logic, designed by your team
- A Drive cleanup, so answers pull from the current version
- An audit trail, pieced together from Workspace and Cloud logs
- Rework when Google renames or repackages its AI tools
Side by side
Five questions to ask before you pick an AI platform.
Where does the risk sit if something goes wrong?
Government work runs in one approved system that IT controls from day one. We never use your content to train models.
Personal Google accounts sit outside your admin console. Workspace plans give IT controls over Gemini, but IT has to set them up and enforce them.
Who can see and audit what staff do with it?
The audit trail shows who did what. Admins see it from the dashboard on every plan.
Workspace audit logs track Gemini activity. IT exports and reviews them in its own tools.
Does it know how your government actually works?
Ready-made skills for government come with every plan, and answers draw on the policies and files you connect.
Answers come from general training data plus whatever staff can open in Gmail and Drive. How well they fit depends on how clean and current those files are.
Who builds the workflow, and who keeps it working?
GovAI builds, runs, and maintains the Agents for your first jobs. Your team can build its own on the same platform.
Your team builds each one. Google’s ready-made agents cover research and notebooks.
What does it actually cost to get the work done?
One annual price for your organization, with use capacity sized into the plan. Onboarding and coaching are included.
Per-user licensing through Workspace, with Gemini Enterprise as a separate per-seat license for agents. Plus the staff time to build them.
Feature by feature
What each one includes, plan by plan.
Much of what Gemini offers is real and useful. This table shows which pieces come finished for local government and which ones your team assembles.
AI models
GovAI picks the models behind the platform and updates them for you
Google’s own models only. Features vary by Workspace plan.
Single sign-on
Included on every plan
Through your Google identity setup, configured by IT
Admin console and audit logs
Admin dashboard, controls, and audit trail on every plan
Workspace admin console and audit logs. Cloud audit logging for Gemini Enterprise isn’t on its Business edition.
Personal and sensitive data
Data Shield on every plan. It flags or blocks sensitive information as staff type and scans every uploaded file.
No local government rules. Data loss prevention isn’t in Workspace Business editions.
Ready-made local government work
Ready-made skills for government on every plan
Needs your own staff, or an outside consultant, to build it as Gems and agents
Agents that run a job end to end
Everyday Agents built and run by GovAI on every plan. More Agents priced by the job.
Needs your own staff to build them in Gemini Enterprise, a separate license
Gemini and Workspace details from Google’s Workspace, Gemini Enterprise, and admin help pages, checked September 29, 2026. Plans change often.
Run both
Keep Gemini and add GovAI for the governed work.
Gemini stays in Gmail, Docs, and Drive for everyday email and documents. GovAI runs the work that needs your rules, a sign-off, and an audit trail.
Run in GovAI
- Records requests and staff reports, with a Specialist Agent
- Bylaw lookups, meeting minutes, and policy answers, with Everyday Agents
- Ready-made skills for government
- Data Shield, admin controls, and an audit trail
- Access for every staff member, including people without a Gemini Enterprise license
Keep using Gemini for
- Drafting and summarizing email in Gmail
- Writing and editing in Docs
- Finding files in Drive
- Quick questions in Google Search
How to run both
- 01List which jobs stay in Gmail and Docs, and which need a governed place to run.
- 02Bring the policies, bylaws, and templates those jobs depend on into GovAI, so answers come from the current version.
- 03Pick the first job with us, like the records request backlog, and give every department access.
Platform and people
People who know local government stay with you.
We bring what we have learned across 180+ local governments to every rollout, training session, and new piece of work.
Included with GovAI
- Academy and video training for every staff member
- Standard onboarding and live group training
- Chat with an AI expert, plus tech support
- Regular 1:1s with a dedicated customer success manager
- Quarterly office hours, plus peer user groups on Connected
With Gemini
- Standard support from Google or your Workspace reseller
- No training program built around local government jobs
- Onboarding by department is yours to plan and run
- No office hours or peer group in the contract
It is like adding an AI team without having to build one yourself.
Gemini is priced per user, folded into each Workspace seat. Agents come with Gemini Enterprise, a second per-seat license on top. So someone decides who gets the second license, and staff left off go without.
GovAI is one annual price for your organization. Everyone on staff gets access, use capacity is sized into your plan, and your price is set for the contract year. When the work grows, add Agents. Each one is priced by the job, with the capacity it needs included.
Questions
Questions buyers ask us.
We already pay for Gemini in Workspace. Why add GovAI?
Gemini is already in your Workspace plan, and staff use it for email and documents. That doesn’t change. The question is where the work that needs an audit trail runs: a FOIA response, a council packet, a policy answer someone might have to defend later. Gemini doesn’t come with those jobs set up. GovAI does.
Doesn’t Google Workspace already have security controls?
Yes. Admins can turn Gemini on or off by app, set how long conversations are kept, and review audit logs. Google says Workspace doesn’t use customer data to train models without permission. Those are real controls. Retention schedules, exemption logic, and packet workflows still aren’t part of it, so someone at your organization has to design them and keep them current. We never use your content to train models, with Data Shield on or off. GovAI is SOC 2 Type II compliant and follows the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. Your IT lead can request the SOC 2 report on our Trust Center.
What about Gemini for Government?
Gemini for Government is a GSA OneGov offer for U.S. federal agencies, with FedRAMP High. It isn’t offered to cities or counties, which buy standard Workspace plans or Gemini Enterprise instead.
Can’t we build our own FOIA agent in Gemini Enterprise?
You can. Gemini Enterprise has a no-code agent builder, and a capable staff member can make one. The work is what comes after: testing it against real requests, updating it when exemptions, forms, or staff change, and keeping an audit trail around it. Google has already folded one agent product, Agentspace, into Gemini Enterprise. GovAI builds, runs, and maintains that Agent for you.
How long before staff can use this?
Staff can start on day one. Ready-made skills for government and the guardrails are already set up. We pick the first job with you, usually the one piling up most, and build and run that Agent. Then our local government experts coach each department as its work goes live.
Does GovAI replace Microsoft Copilot too?
No. Copilot stays for work inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. GovAI runs the governed work, secure chat, and Agents on named jobs like packets, records, and permits. Most organizations run both.
More comparisons
Gemini and Workspace details from Google’s Workspace, Gemini Enterprise, and admin help pages, checked September 29, 2026. Plans change often.
See the difference for yourself.
Bring your hardest questions to a live tour, or ask a specialist how GovAI fits beside the tools you use today.