How to Create a CRM With Google Sheets and Gemini AI Easily 2026

Google keeps a public "Workspace Experiments" hub, described as "The home for AI experiments in Workspace," linking out to AI-assisted features across Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more. It's a reasonable starting point if you're not sure which product's AI panel handles a task like this, but it's also a useful reminder that access isn't universal: Build sits behind an eligible Workspace or Google AI plan, so a listing here doesn't guarantee the feature is live on your specific account.

In a new, untitled spreadsheet, open the Gemini panel from the icon in the top toolbar. It docks as a full side panel instead of a chat box floating over your data, with a headline prompt, "Generate a custom spreadsheet," plus example starting points like "Track action items from my meeting notes." A "Try out Build" callout explains what's happening underneath: it turns plain-language prompts into full spreadsheets, generating reports and trackers using data from your Workspace files and the web.

Type a request describing your actual needs, something like "Build a CRM to track my clients, deal stage, last contact date, and follow-up reminders." Naming the specific fields you care about gives Gemini something concrete to build from, instead of a generic contact list you'll need to restructure afterward.

Gemini responds with a numbered plan instead of jumping straight to a finished sheet, in this example steps like "Build Summary Scorecards" and "Configure CRM Data Table," with a "More" link for the rest. An Approve button sits below it, along with thumbs-up and thumbs-down feedback icons and a status line reading "Collecting info…" while it works. This staged step matters: it lets you catch a plan headed in the wrong direction, say, scorecards you don't need, before it generates a sheet full of extra tabs and formulas you'd have to clean up.

Clicking Approve lets Gemini generate the actual tabs and tables, typically a main CRM data table with columns for contact info, deal stage, and dates, plus any summary or scorecard views it proposed. Because this runs inside your own Sheet instead of a separate app, everything it creates is standard spreadsheet content you can edit or delete freely afterward.

Before relying on it day to day, walk through the columns it created and confirm they match how you track deals. Treat the first pass as a strong draft, not a finished CRM tailored to your process; rename fields, reorder columns, or add ones it missed, like a referral source column, the same way you would in any sheet you built by hand. The panel stays available afterward too, so you can come back and ask it to summarize stale deals or flag rows missing a follow-up date, not just at the initial build.