What Google Drive is and how Kite works with it
Google Drive is Google's service for storing and sharing files. For a lot of marketing teams, it's where everything ends up: the brand guidelines PDF, the positioning doc, the launch plan, the folder of product screenshots, and the spreadsheet of webinar signups. An AI marketer gets the most out of Drive when it does two things there. It reads what your team has already written, so its work starts from your real plans. Then it saves what it makes back where your team will look for it. With a connected Google Drive account, Kite does both. It finds and reads your files, saves finished drafts, images, and videos into the right folders, shares them with the people who need them, and answers the comments your team leaves. You connect Drive through OAuth, and Kite works with whatever that account can open.
Marketing jobs Kite can do with Google Drive
Drive holds three things Kite works with: the files themselves, the folders and shared drives that organize them, and the sharing settings and comments that let people work on them together. The jobs below start with reading what's already there, move through saving and sharing new work, and end with keeping your files in order.
Work from the documents your team already wrote
Kite searches Drive for the files a job depends on and reads them before it starts. It can search by file name, folder, file type, the date a file last changed, or words inside the file. Those searches cover your own Drive and the shared drives your account belongs to.
Once it finds the right file, Kite reads it in a form it can work with. A Google Doc comes through as text and a Google Sheet as a table of rows. Slides decks, PDFs, and other files you've stored open in their own formats.
Say you ask Kite for a launch email about your new pricing. Kite finds the pricing one-pager your product lead saved last week in the "Launches" shared drive. It reads the new plan names and prices from that file and writes the email from them, not from the pricing page on your website that's about to change. When a file holds something every later task should know, such as a new positioning statement, Kite adds it to your team's knowledge base too.
Save finished work where your team looks for it
Kite saves what it makes into Drive, so finished work lands next to the rest of your files. A campaign brief, blog draft, or report becomes a Google Doc. A list of prospects or event attendees becomes a Google Sheet. Images, ad creative, PDFs, and finished videos upload as files, and Kite can also save a file straight from a web link.
Kite puts each file where it belongs. It creates a folder when a project needs one and places files in the folder you already use for that kind of work. For an agency, Kite can set up a new shared drive for each client.
Picture the end of a campaign sprint. Kite saves the four ad images, the landing page copy, and the results summary into your "Campaigns / Spring promo" folder and posts the folder link in Slack. When your designer asks where the final files are, the answer is one link.
Some files already have a link people rely on, like the price sheet PDF linked from your email signature. When the prices change, Kite replaces that file's contents with the new version, so the link everyone already has opens the current sheet.
Work through the comments on a draft
Kite reads the comments and replies on a file, answers them, and resolves each one once it's handled. It can also leave comments of its own, quoting the passage each one is about.
Imagine your CEO leaves seven comments on the launch post Kite saved to Drive. Kite reads them all and writes a revised version that addresses each one. Then it replies to every comment to say what changed and resolves it. If a comment asks something only you know, such as whether a customer agreed to be named, Kite can leave that comment open and bring the question to you in Slack.
The same works in the other direction. When a teammate writes a draft, Kite can review it and leave comments that quote the sentences that need work. It might flag a statistic that needs a source, or a headline that buries the offer.
Pick up new files as your team adds them
Kite can check a folder on a schedule and act on whatever is new since its last look. It finds the files added or changed since then and reads only those.
Say your sales team drops call notes into a "Customer calls" folder after every demo. Once a week, Kite reads the new notes and pulls out the objections and phrases customers kept repeating. It adds them to your team's knowledge base, so the next landing page Kite writes uses the words your buyers actually say.
Keep your marketing files in order
Kite renames files, adds descriptions, and moves files between folders. It can also create a shortcut, so one file shows up in two folders without a second copy to keep in sync. If your company uses Google Drive labels, Kite applies them, and it can move files to the trash and restore them.
After a rebrand, for example, Kite searches for the decks and one-pagers that still mention your old product name. It moves them into an "Archive" folder and tells the team where the current versions live.
What Kite reads and changes in Google Drive
Information Kite can read
- File contentsKite reads Google Docs as text, Google Sheets as tables, and Slides decks, PDFs, images, and other stored files, so its work starts from what your team wrote.
- File detailsKite reads a file's name, type, folder, description, labels, and the date it last changed, which is how it finds the right version of a document.
- Folders and shared drivesKite lists what's inside a folder and which shared drives the account belongs to.
- Sharing settingsKite reads who has access to a file or folder and at what level.
- Comments and repliesKite reads every comment thread on a file, including the replies.
- Version historyKite reads when each saved version of a file was made.
- Recent changesKite reads which files were added or changed since a given point, which is how a scheduled check picks up new work.
Information Kite can create or change
- New filesKite creates Google Docs and Google Sheets from its own writing and uploads images, videos, PDFs, and files from a web link.
- Existing uploaded filesKite replaces the contents of a stored file, such as a PDF, while keeping its link.
- Folders and shared drivesKite creates folders and shared drives and moves files between them.
- File detailsKite renames files, edits descriptions, applies labels, and creates shortcuts.
- SharingKite shares files, folders, and shared drives, and it changes or removes access.
- CommentsKite leaves comments, replies to comments, and resolves them.
- TrashKite moves files to the trash and restores them.
How Kite connects to Google Drive
Connect your Google Drive account through OAuth. Kite then works with the files, folders, and shared drives that account can open, with the same access that account has. If your marketing files live in a shared drive, connect an account that belongs to it.
You don't need Drive to hand Kite a file, because Kite reads files people share in Slack. Drive is the connection to make when Kite should find files on its own and save its finished work where your team keeps everything else.
You can start with a goal rather than a file path. Ask Kite to turn last month's customer interviews into three headline options for your homepage. It finds the interview notes in Drive, reads them, and brings the options back to Slack with the customer quotes behind each one.
Limits and product-specific details
- Editing inside an existing Google Doc or Sheet. Through Drive, Kite creates new Google Docs and Sheets and replaces the contents of uploaded files such as PDFs. To change the text inside an existing Google Doc or the rows in an existing Google Sheet, Kite uses those products' own connections. See Google Sheets + Kite for the spreadsheet side.
- Access follows the connected account. Kite sees the files and shared drives the connected Google account can open, and it can share a file only if that account is allowed to.
Common questions
Where do the files Kite creates show up?
Files Kite creates belong to the connected Google account. They appear in that account's Drive, or in the shared drive Kite saved them to, where everyone with access to that drive can find them. A new file starts out private to the connected account until Kite shares it or saves it into a shared folder.
Can Kite open a Google Drive link someone posts in Slack?
Yes. With Drive connected, Kite opens a Drive link shared in Slack using the connected account's access. That means it can read a doc your teammate linked without anyone downloading or attaching it.