---
title: What the assistant can do
description: A plain list of what Workspace AI and the Mail, Calendar and Drive AI panels can read and change, and what they never do.
---

This page lists what each assistant can do. The assistants can only reach mailboxes, calendars and drives that have AI turned on. Actions marked **(approval)** wait for you to press **Approve** first. See [Approve or decline actions](/guide/assistant/approve-or-decline-actions).

## Workspace AI

The Workspace Assistant can do everything below, across all the mailboxes, calendars and drives in your workspace that have AI turned on.

### Mail

- See your mailboxes and a combined inbox across them
- List the emails in a folder, and search one mailbox or all of them
- Read an email or a whole conversation, including its headers and original source
- List an email's attachments and read the text inside them (for example a PDF, a calendar invitation, a contact card or a forwarded email)
- Summarize a conversation
- Look up contacts
- Check an email for phishing (when phishing detection is on)
- Mark as read or unread, star, archive and restore
- Delete emails **(approval)**
- List labels, set or clear a label on one or many emails, and create a label
- Delete a label **(approval)**
- Create and update drafts
- Delete a draft **(approval)**
- Send an email **(approval)**
- Snooze, unsnooze and cancel a snooze, and list snoozed emails
- Schedule an email to send later **(approval)**, list scheduled emails, call one back **(approval)** or retry one **(approval)**
- Mute or unmute a conversation, and list muted conversations
- Add to, remove from and list Read later
- Find newsletters you receive, and unsubscribe from them **(approval)**

### Calendar

- List your calendars and events
- Read an event, including who has accepted or declined
- Add, change and delete events **(approval)**
- Reply to an invitation with yes, no or maybe **(approval)**

When the assistant changes an event or replies to an invitation, the other attendees are notified.

### Drive

- List your drives, browse folders and see storage use
- Search all your drives by file name or content
- Read file details and the text of plain text files
- Create a folder, rename, and move within the same drive **(approval)**
- Delete a file or folder **(approval)**. In Google Drive and OneDrive, the item goes to that service's trash. On other drives, it is deleted for good.
- Pin and unpin folders **(approval)**. Pins are personal, so only you see them.

### People

- List the members of the workspace and their roles
- Find mail you exchanged with a member, a member's events, and files on drives a member connected

### Workflows

- List workflows and their runs, and open a run to see what happened
- Create, change and turn on or off a workflow **(approval)**
- Delete a workflow **(approval)**. Only workspace owners and admins can delete workflows.
- Run a workflow now **(approval)**
- Cancel a run or retry its failed steps **(approval)**
- Try an Ask step on recent mail, to see how it would sort it (when your server offers Ask and Branch steps)

See [Workflows](/guide/workflows) for what workflows are.

### Workspace administration

Only for workspace owners and admins:

- List pending invitations, and revoke one **(approval)**
- Remove a member **(approval)**
- Change the workspace accent color **(approval)**

## Mail AI, Calendar AI and Drive AI

The side panels can do less than the Workspace Assistant. Each one works only with the mailbox, calendar or drive you have open.

| Panel | Can read | Can change |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Mail AI** | List and search emails, read an email, check an email for phishing (when phishing detection is on) | Star or unstar, set a label that already exists, delete emails **(approval)** |
| **Calendar AI** | List calendars and events, read an event | Add, change and delete events, reply to invitations (all **approval**) |
| **Drive AI** | List drives, browse folders, search files, read file details and plain text files | Create a folder, rename, move within the same drive, delete (all **approval**) |

Mail AI cannot send email or save drafts. When you ask it to draft a reply, it writes the text in the chat.

## What the assistants never do

On purpose, no assistant can:

- Upload files or create share links
- Turn AI on or off
- Change calendar visibility, which drive folders a workspace sees, or what is shared
- Add or remove mailboxes, calendars and drives from a workspace, or join a workspace
- Change MCP client settings
- Change member roles, send workspace invitations or change the workspace logo
- Do anything that needs your two-factor code
- Decide what happened to a send whose outcome is unclear. You resolve that yourself in the mailbox. See [Mail](/guide/mail).