The new Shortwave AI Assistant

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses a major update to the Shortwave AI assistant, which has significantly expanded its capabilities. The AI assistant can now perform complex, multi-step procedures, including:

• Searching for relevant emails, calendar events, and other information to provide personalized answers
• Running multiple searches in parallel and backtracking to find the necessary information
• Combining search, calendar lookups, event scheduling, and email writing to complete tasks
• Leveraging advanced customizations and one-click AI commands to automate common workflows

🙋 Q&A

[01] Overview of the AI Assistant Updates

1. What are the key new capabilities of the Shortwave AI Assistant?

• The AI assistant can now make plans and take multiple steps to answer requests, including running multiple AI-powered searches and calendar lookups.
• It has significantly upgraded its search infrastructure and can process a larger amount of email context at once.
• The AI assistant can now perform complex, multi-step procedures, going beyond just being an email writing helper.

2. How does the AI assistant work to provide personalized answers?

• The AI assistant automatically searches for emails, calendar events, settings, and other relevant information to give a personalized answer unique to the user and their business.
• It can copy and paste relevant information from emails, drafts, and calendar events, while also understanding the user's personal writing style, settings, and more.

3. What are the key improvements to the AI assistant's search capabilities?

• The AI assistant can now run multiple searches in parallel, find more relevant information much faster, and use new features like the "about:" search keyword to give users more control.
• It can also backtrack and try different searches automatically if an initial approach doesn't find the needed information.

[02] Practical Examples of the AI Assistant in Use

1. How does the AI assistant help the user get up to speed after returning from vacation?

• The user asks the AI assistant to find all emails related to a "Shortwave for Teams" project from the last 2 weeks.
• The AI assistant can then provide a summary of the progress made on the project over the last 2 weeks, and identify any user feedback or unresolved customer complaints.
• The AI assistant can also schedule a meeting with key stakeholders and draft an FYI email to the team about the meeting.

2. What advanced capabilities does the AI assistant have beyond just search and analysis?

• The AI assistant can now combine search, calendar lookups, event scheduling, email writing, and more to complete multi-step tasks.
• Users can also leverage advanced customizations and one-click AI commands to automate common workflows.

3. How does the AI assistant's writing capabilities work?

• The Shortwave AI's "Ghostwriter" personalization technology learns from the user's past emails to write natural-sounding emails that match their style.