Google simply declared itself a contender in AI design at IO 2026

Google introduced at its annual Google I/O event on Tuesday that it’s launching Pics, a brand new AI-powered design and image-generation app for Google Workspace. The tech large says it designed the app to be accessible to everybody, from academics to small enterprise house owners.

With Pics, customers can generate all the pieces from social media graphics and invites to advertising and marketing supplies and mock-ups utilizing easy textual content prompts, without having any enhancing abilities or superior instruments. By giving customers a simple approach to generate visuals, Google is trying to tackle fashionable design apps like Canva, in addition to merchandise from AI-native opponents like Claude Design from Anthropic. Google’s entry into the house indicators that AI-powered design is quick turning into a core aggressive area — with actual stakes for any enterprise that depends upon visible content material.

The brand new app is launching to a gaggle of testers at I/O and can be rolling out to Google AI Extremely subscribers this summer season, Google says.

The corporate acknowledges that though AI fashions at this time can generate high-quality photographs, it’s nonetheless troublesome to switch only one a part of a picture. For those who get a picture that’s virtually excellent however need to change a small element, you need to write a completely new immediate and hope the AI doesn’t alter an excessive amount of. That’s why Pics not solely generates photographs but in addition makes them simply editable.

Customers can enter a immediate, and Pics will generate what they want. Gemini powers the enhancing layer, making each ingredient in a generated design or picture totally adjustable. You may write a brand new immediate to make adjustments, however you can even merely click on the half you need to change and go away a remark — very similar to leaving suggestions in Google Docs.

You can even edit straight, with out leaving a remark or writing a immediate. For instance, when you create a party invitation and need to change the time listed on the cardboard, you are able to do so manually.

Pics is powered by Nano Banana 2, which Google says is a powerful match for the app as a result of it helps exact textual content rendering, real-world information, and detailed visible output. Pics can also be constructed natively into Google Workspace, enabling visible collaboration throughout its apps.

When you’re glad together with your design, you’ll be able to obtain, copy, print, or share it with others. You can even move it to another person for a remaining spherical of edits earlier than it goes out, Google says.