Tech Topic 77: Google Illuminate Research Summaries, YouTube Community Pinned Posts, Workspace Studio Workflows

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In the final Tech Topic episode for 2025, Bob shared how to create an audio research summary with Google Illuminate, Peggy showed how to pin a post to the top of your YouTube Community, and Nina demonstrated how to create a workflow with the new Workspace Studio.

This week's background was generated in Meet with the prompt "Futuristic airport".


Bob Danley: Use Google Illuminate to Create an Audio Research Summary 

Bob demonstrated how to use Google Illuminate, experimental technology to create podcast-like audio overviews of academic and technical publications.  You can add your own sources, or just type a question.

 As an example he created an overview about the role of AI in elephant conservation, selecting a specific audience. It's interactive, and you can interrupt the play-back with your own questions. There is a complete transcript and the audio can be exported as an MP3 file. 

Bob notes, "And basically, Illuminate is all about creating podcasts. That's its main purpose. ... it's much like NotebookLM, but it's boiled down."

And Bob says, "Get engaged with AI. It's not the evil that you think it is at present time anyway... Don't be afraid to jump in there as a senior. Hey folks, get with the program. This is a wonderful tool or tools I should say and don't be afraid to use them."

More Information

Try Google Illuminate: illuminate.google.com/explore

Peggy Kolm: Pin a Post to Your YouTube Community


Peggy shared a new feature for YouTube Communities that lets you pin a post to the top of the Community. This option is currently only available in the YouTube mobile app, but will be coming to desktop. 

1. Open your YouTube Community and find the post you want to pin
2. Click the 3 dot menu icon on the post
3. Select the option to Pin post

Peggy says: "This is a good way to greet people and maybe encourage them to contribute to your community on YouTube."

More Information

YouTube Support: Start Your Community: Pin a Post

Nina Trankova: Automate Workflows with Workspace Studio

Nina demonstrated how to use the new Workspace Studio, which lets you create AI-powered agent for automation of Workspace business tasks.

As an example, she created an automation that creates a Task every time a file is added to a specific Google Drive folder. 

Nina says, "You can use the template, and there are some suggestions about the processes in at work related to your Gmail meetings, things you want to improve via automation."

More Information

Availability: Google Workspace for Business, Enterprise and Education; Google AI Pro for Education; Google AI Ultra for Business

Announcement: Introducing Google Workspace Studio: Automate everyday work with AI agents

OnEBoard will be back with 3 Tips in 10 Minutes on January 11, 2026.

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