I Tried Google’s 24/7 AI Assistant Gemini Spark, and It Proved to Be Surprisingly Useful

Gemini Spark is Google’s new 24/7 agentic assistant, designed to help you “navigate your digital life.” In essence, this means accomplishing your online to-dos, summarizing content you don’t have time to read (like your entire inbox), or organizing tasks that would normally require tedious manual effort, such as a personal expenses spreadsheet.

The service was first revealed at Google’s annual developer conference in May, where CEO Sundar Pichai humorously remarked that Spark, which runs on virtual machines in the cloud, means that “yes, you can close your laptop.” This joke highlights Spark’s advantage over other agentic AI systems, like the popular OpenClaw, which necessitate keeping your machine awake to operate.

Pichai suggests that Spark is agentic AI for the everyday user — those who prefer to get things done without delving too deep into the complexities of setting up persistent AI machinery.

In practice, Spark is still primarily focused on work-related tasks, as evidenced by its integration with Google’s productivity apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. (After all, how often are you preparing a presentation in your personal life? Unless, of course, you’re a Gen Z creator explaining the latest meme to your friends who are not online.)

Google also faces challenges in presenting compelling real-world examples that would persuade someone to see Spark as a “must-have” rather than simply “nice-to-have” for personal use.

Among its suggestions for “personal productivity” is utilizing Spark to scan your emails and calendar for the day, sending you a recap with your top three essential tasks. This inherently assumes you’re someone who records your to-dos in an app instead of a notepad (virtual or physical) or simply keeps a mental list. (For instance, Grab prescriptions and shampoo at Walgreens. Buy more dog food. Spend time with friends on Saturday.)

Google also proposes using Spark as a weekend planner by drafting a Google Doc that “suggests three free activities based on my available calendar slots for the upcoming weekend.” This again presumes that you are some sort of scheduling enthusiast in your offline life.

Nevertheless, with early access to Gemini Spark, I decided to test it against some practical scenarios of my own. I was pleasantly surprised to find it a fairly useful implementation of consumer AI, though I believe it doesn’t necessarily warrant its own brand.

Finding Savings

For one task, I solicited Spark’s help with shopping research. I requested suggestions for household items based on weekly deals and coupons I could use at a local drugstore.

Initially, Spark performed well, pointing out exactly what products were on sale to meet my needs and recommending coupons to clip for extra savings via the Walgreens app. It even suggested how to stack coupons for an item by combining online promo codes if I intended to place an online pick-up order for personal care items.

However, as is common with AI, the devil is in the details; one of the promo codes was invalid when I tried it, even though it met the AI’s stated requirements. Still, Spark identified other savings opportunities — such as buy-one-get-one-free deals and rewards offers — that compensated for this issue.

Planning a Packing List for a Day Trip

In another test, I asked Gemini to help create a packing list for a day trip. I instructed it to check the weather, gather event details, and suggest what to bring, like sunscreen or water, to tailor the list to our plans. I requested the final list to be exported to Google Keep.

Guess what Spark can’t do? Use Google Keep.

This is a significant oversight, considering that Google’s notetaking app would be crucial for personal productivity. Instead, it offered to create a document or draft an email, which isn’t quite what I’d want for my packing list. (??)

On the bright side, Spark accurately suggested essentials like lawn chairs or blankets, water, sunscreen, sunglasses, a light layer for chilly moments, a reusable shopping bag, and an umbrella for potential rain. It even reminded me that dogs were not allowed at the outdoor event. (Sorry, Princess!)

Summer Camp / Activity Suggestions

My child has aged out of summer camps for kids (and could probably just get a job), but before we go down that path, I wanted to check for summer activities available for teens in the local area that she might enjoy alongside her engineering camp in June. I asked Spark for a thorough search for any suggestions within a 30-minute drive.

Spark generated a decent list of activities that matched my child’s interests and outlined their distances from home. Unfortunately, I neglected to ask Spark for the costs or dates of these programs, and it failed to provide that information, which meant I had to do some manual research of my own.

Recurring Task: Summarize Newsletters from Email

Like many, I subscribe to an overwhelming number of newsletters, so I put Spark to work on producing a weekly summary every Friday, focusing on the top five articles or posts I shouldn’t miss, complete with links.

The AI quickly searched my inbox and presented a summary of several interesting articles, including context and a link. (Unfortunately, the link turned out to be a Google.com redirect that didn’t work — I ended up needing to click the link displayed on the redirect page, as it didn’t automatically direct me to the intended site.) Although I generally liked the suggestions, Spark returned four articles instead of the requested five, interpreting the request as “4-5” for some unknown reason.

Recurring Event: Suggest Weekend Activities

For another request, I asked Spark to compile a list of weekend activities around town every Friday to assist me in planning my weekend leisure. Living in a smaller city means that big events aren’t always easily discoverable, making it crucial not to miss exciting happenings like scheduled street festivals or notable shows. Typically, this requires sifting through various local newsletters, websites, Facebook Groups, and online newspapers.

Instead, Spark set up a web search, combined with a search of my Gmail for local newsletters or digests containing relevant keywords. It compiled a list of upcoming weekend events and noted that I could add any of them to my calendar by merely replying.

Thanks to Spark, I discovered the upcoming Annual Beaver Queen Pageant nearby, featuring participants in beaver costumes raising funds for wetland conservation. I might need to check that out! (You still have to instruct Spark to add it, then click a button to confirm, but this is certainly easier than the manual task of sifting through multiple sources for ideas.)

Recurring Event: Check for Price Drops

For my last request, I tasked Gemini Spark with tracking price drops for an expensive eye cream. As someone who is budget-conscious, I’d never buy it without a significant discount. I wanted Spark to keep an eye on the price fluctuations and alert me if the eye cream became more affordable. However, Spark’s understanding of this request was to check the price every two weeks to see if it fell below my target. I’m not sure this frequency is sufficient to catch a good deal. (I’ll update if results yield success, but I fear I’ve set the bar too low in my target — even after raising it by $10! — so this might be wishful shopping. Yet, I remain hopeful that an online retailer will make a pricing error one day!)

More Ideas to Come

I see multiple ways to integrate Spark into my daily life going forward — I already have ideas for more email monitoring and cleanup tasks. For instance, the next time I change the home’s air filter, I plan to ask Spark to remind me in three months to replace it. If I ever take a vacation, I will likely enlist Spark for tasks then as well.

Room to Improve

While Spark effectively handled the tasks I presented with only minor issues, my primary critique is that there’s no necessity for it to exist as a standalone product with a distinct brand. This adds to consumer confusion in a time where there’s so much activity in the AI sector, with each new model sporting its own name and number — and some names being quite bizarre. (Nano Banana, anyone?)

Why not simply present Spark as a feature of Gemini from the outset, rather than spinning it off as a separate product? Why does the toggle label say “switch to Spark,” instead of simply “switch to Tasks?” (If it even needs its unique space in the user interface!) Personally, I don’t want to bear the cognitive load of determining whether something is a question or a task; I want to type my inquiry or request and move on.

Additionally, the lack of Keep integration is a significant drawback regarding personal productivity. Google Docs is excessive for just a packing list. And unfortunately, for iPhone users, directly accessing Gemini Spark via a hardware button or gesture won’t be an option unless Apple announces it at next month’s WWDC. Instead, you’ll need to launch the Gemini app to use it from there. (This is yet another challenge with Spark being its own toggle within Gemini — you cannot set the iPhone’s Activity Button to go straight to Spark, as it’s separate from Gemini’s chatbot interface. It would be fantastic if all of Gemini’s functionalities could be found in a single location! Ugh!)

While Spark will have more capabilities with upcoming MCP integrations, not being able to set it to automate tasks like regularly booking your favorite date-night restaurant via Resy or searching for flight deals on a preferred booking engine makes Spark feel somewhat limited for the time being, especially since not everything you do online occurs within Google’s ecosystem.

(Also, I would really like to be able to text Spark. I wish that were an option too.)

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