How to disable AI features in Google Workspace without breaking your workflow

On January 28, 2026, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario published “AI Scribes: Key Considerations for the Health Sector.” The document focuses on AI scribes in clinical settings, but its core principle applies to any AI system that processes personal health information: consent is generally required.

That’s a notable statement. Health information custodians don’t normally need separate consent for the technology they use to process PHI. The IPC’s position is that AI processing is different because it introduces risks that patients can’t reasonably anticipate, including data being used for model training, bias in outputs, and third party vendor access.

Google Workspace has several AI features turned on by default. Smart Compose reads your email as you type to suggest completions. Smart Reply scans incoming messages to generate quick responses. Then there’s Gemini, which goes further: it can summarize entire email threads, draft replies, analyze documents, and generate meeting notes. All of these process the content of your communications.

If those communications contain PHI, and you haven’t obtained consent for AI processing, you have a compliance gap.

Alberta’s HIA and BC’s PIPA have comparable safeguard provisions, though specific AI guidance has not been published by their respective commissioners.

Which AI features to disable

Google Workspace includes three categories of AI features, each controlled separately in the admin console:

Pre Gemini ML features (on by default for most regions):

• Smart Compose (predictive text while typing)
• Smart Reply (suggested short replies)
• Smart features (calendar event suggestions, package tracking cards, travel itinerary cards)

Gemini features (on by default for Business Standard and above):

• “Help me write” in Gmail and Docs
• Gemini side panel in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Chat
• “Take notes for me” in Google Meet
• AI generated summaries and image generation

Gemini app (gemini.google.com):

• Standalone AI chat interface
• Deep Research and NotebookLM

The distinction matters because each has its own admin toggle. Disabling Gemini does not disable Smart Compose. Disabling Smart Compose does not disable Smart Reply. You need to address each one.

Step 1: Disable Smart Compose

Smart Compose watches what you type in Gmail and suggests how to finish your sentences. It does this by processing the content of your email against Google’s language models.

Path: Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > User settings

Find the Smart Compose setting and turn it off. This applies org wide.

If you also use Google Docs, disable Smart Compose there too:

Path: Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Drive and Docs > Features and Applications

Find Smart Compose and turn it off.

What changes: No more grey text suggestions while typing. That’s it. Spell check, grammar check, and all formatting tools still work. You type the whole sentence yourself.

Workaround: There isn’t one built into Google. If you find yourself typing the same phrases repeatedly, Gmail’s Templates feature (Settings > Advanced > Templates) lets you save and insert canned responses. These are stored text, not AI generated.

Step 2: Disable Smart Reply

Smart Reply scans incoming emails and generates three short response suggestions at the bottom (“Sounds good!”, “Thanks!”, “I’ll look into it”). To produce these, Google’s models read the full content of the incoming message.

Smart Reply is controlled through the broader Smart features setting (see Step 3 below). Disabling smart features and personalization at the organizational level will also disable Smart Reply. If you want to disable Smart Reply independently, check the current admin console for a separate toggle under Gmail user settings, but note that the primary control is through the Smart features setting.

What changes: No suggested reply buttons at the bottom of emails. Everything else in Gmail works identically. You can still reply normally, use templates, and compose emails as before. (The same Gmail Templates workaround from Step 1 applies here.)

Step 3: Disable smart features and personalization

This is the broader setting that controls Gmail’s content scanning features: automatic calendar event creation from emails, package tracking cards, travel itinerary summaries, and personalized search results in Drive.

Path: Admin console > Account > Account settings > Smart features for Google Workspace

The reference page for this setting is on Google Support. Not the most intuitive place to find it (Account settings, not Gmail settings), but that’s Google’s admin console for you. Turn smart features off at the organizational level. This is an account level setting, not a per app setting.

What changes: This is the toggle with the widest impact. You lose:

• Automatic calendar events created from flight/hotel bookings in email
• Package tracking summary cards
• Travel itinerary compilation
• Loyalty card and boarding pass surfacing in Google Wallet
• Personalized search suggestions in Drive

For most therapy practices, none of these are critical. You’re not getting flight booking confirmations in your practice inbox. If you do use a shared practice inbox for administrative purposes and rely on these features, consider creating a separate organizational unit for admin accounts and only disabling smart features for clinical accounts.

Workaround: Add calendar events manually. Track packages on carrier websites. These are small inconveniences compared to having Google’s AI scan every email in your inbox.

Step 4: Disable Gemini

Gemini is Google’s generative AI layer. It’s more capable than Smart Compose or Smart Reply, and it processes content more aggressively: summarizing threads, drafting full emails, analyzing spreadsheet data, generating meeting notes.

A heads up before you start: some Google Workspace admins have reported that the Gemini disable toggles don’t appear in the admin console until you contact Google Support to have them surfaced. If you don’t see the Generative AI section in your admin console, open a support case with Google. This is a known issue that Google has acknowledged.

Path: Admin console > Generative AI > Gemini for Workspace > Feature access

Here you’ll see individual toggles for each Google Workspace app. Click Edit next to each service (Gmail, Docs, Meet, Sheets, Slides, etc.) and set it to Off. Click Save after each change.

For the standalone Gemini app:

Path: Admin console > Generative AI > Gemini app

Toggle this off to prevent users from accessing gemini.google.com with their work account.

What changes: All AI powered drafting, summarization, and analysis in Workspace apps goes away. No “Help me write,” no side panel summaries, no AI meeting notes. Standard features all work: you can still compose emails, create documents, run meetings, and record them (where permitted). The pre Gemini ML features (Smart Compose, Smart Reply) are controlled separately and remain in whatever state you set them.

Workaround: If staff need AI drafting tools for non clinical work, they can use third party tools like ChatGPT or similar in a separate browser profile that isn’t logged into the practice’s Google account. This keeps AI processing away from the Workspace data that contains PHI. Note: any PHI pasted into a third party AI tool creates its own consent and data processing issues.

What this doesn’t fix

Disabling these features stops Google’s AI from processing your email and document content going forward. But there are limits to what admin console toggles can address:

No retroactive deletion. Google doesn’t offer a way to delete data that Smart Compose or Smart Reply already processed. The processing happens in real time and Google states it doesn’t retain the content for model training when the BAA is in place, but there’s no audit confirming this.

Data still lives in the US. Disabling AI features doesn’t change where your email is stored. Google Workspace data regions offer US, Europe, or No Preference. Canada isn’t an option. If data residency is a concern, see our admin console security settings guide for the full picture.

Even with AI features off, you still need a mechanism to track client consent for electronic communication of PHI. The admin console doesn’t provide this, and it’s worth solving separately.

Third party add ons may have their own AI. If you’ve installed Chrome extensions, Gmail add ons, or third party apps that connect to your Workspace data, those may have AI processing of their own. Audit your installed apps under Admin console > Apps > Marketplace apps.

The IPC’s position in context

The IPC’s January 2026 guidance was written for AI scribes, not for Gmail’s autocomplete. But the underlying principle is the same: when AI processes health information, patients should know about it and have the option to say no.

The guidance specifically requires “knowledgeable consent,” meaning patients understand: (a) that AI is being used, (b) what information it processes, (c) which vendors are involved, (d) the key risks, (e) what data is shared and why, and (f) the risk of bias. It also states that patients who withhold consent must receive the same quality of care.

For a therapy practice using Google Workspace, the practical question is: did you tell your clients that Google’s AI reads their emails to generate autocomplete suggestions and summaries? If not, the safest path is to disable these features until you have a consent process in place, or to disable them permanently and avoid the issue entirely.

For most solo therapists, disabling permanently is the right call. The productivity loss is minimal. The compliance risk of leaving them on is not.

Next steps

If you haven’t already locked down the rest of your admin console, start with the full security settings guide for Canadian therapists. It covers the BAA, data regions, 2FA enforcement, sharing permissions, and email compliance settings.

Between this guide and the admin console walkthrough, you’ll have addressed the most important Google Workspace settings for a Canadian therapy practice.

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This guide is part of the Google Workspace for Canadian Therapists project. We run a private Facebook group where Canadian therapists on Google Workspace share compliance tips, templates, and admin console walkthroughs. Join the group.

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This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Privacy regulations vary by province and are subject to change. Verify current requirements with your provincial regulatory body.