Let AI build Your Google Workspace automations

Welcome to Prompt, Tinker, Innovate—my AI playground for operators who want leverage. Each edition gives you a hands-on experiment that shows how AI can sharpen your thinking, eliminate busywork, and turn you into the most resourceful person in the room.

This week’s playground: AI as your personal software engineer

We all have those soul-crushing manual tasks. Most people assume they need a developer—or have to wait for IT—to fix them.

That assumption just expired.

With AI, you don’t need to know how to code. You just need to clearly describe your workflow.

This week, we’re bridging the gap between “I wish my computer could do that” and actually making it happen. We’re using AI to write Google Apps Scripts—the hidden superpower inside your Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail.

Why this matters

Apps Script is how you build the features Google forgot to give you. By using AI as your translator, you can turn a plain English description into a working tool in minutes.

No more waiting for feature updates. No more repetitive admin work. No more “someone should build this.”

If you can describe a workflow, you can build a tool.

Use case spotlight: From to-do to done

Imagine a Google Sheet that scans itself every night to find duplicate entries and merges them. Or a sheet that automatically re-sorts itself every time a new row is added.

Small scripts. Real leverage.

Here’s how I use Apps Script to eliminate friction:

• The slide cleaner: I write speaker notes in Google Slides and, with one click, a script moves them into a structured Google Doc (with slide headers) and deletes the originals before I send the deck to clients. What used to take 15 minutes now takes 2 seconds.

• The folder architect: When a new client is added to a Sheet, a script automatically creates a standardized Drive structure (Client Name > Contracts, Client Name > Assets, etc.). Zero setup time.

• The survey scribe: The moment someone completes a customer satisfaction survey, I receive an automated summary email. No manual checking.

Your AI experiment: Try this prompt

We’re going to build a script that automatically creates a Google Calendar event from a row in a Google Sheet. When it works, you’ll click one custom menu button and watch your calendar populate instantly.

👉 Time to tinker:

1. Open a Google Sheet.

2. Add headers: Event Name (A1), Date (B1), and Description (C1). Fill in one row of data.

3. Go to Extensions > Apps Script.

4. Now open Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT and copy and paste the prompt below. Note: I prefer Gemini here as no one knows how to create a Google App Script better than Google!

📝 Prompt: "I want to write a Google Apps Script for a Google Sheet. The sheet has three columns: 'Event Name' (A), 'Date' (B), and 'Description' (C). Write a script that:

1. Reads the active row.

2. Creates a Google Calendar event using that data.

3. Adds a custom menu to the Google Sheet called 'Automation' with a button 'Create Calendar Event' so I can run it easily.

Please provide the code and brief instructions on where to paste it and how to use it."

Important Tip: When you run the script for the first time, Google will ask for permission to access your Calendar. Since you are the author of the script, it is safe to authorize!

💡 Pro tip: Want to level it up?

After Gemini gives you the code, ask: "Update the script to change the row color to green once the calendar event has been successfully created."

You will need to copy and paste the updated code and save it.

What did you discover?

Did the script work on the first try? Did you feel a strange sense of power when a custom menu appeared in your spreadsheet?

The goal here isn't to become a developer. It's to realize that the technical barrier is gone. If you can describe a workflow, you can build a tool.

Until next time—keep tinkering, keep prompting, keep innovating.

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