Bring your project files into a meeting with Google’s local Mac assistant

Google’s experimental AI Edge Foresight app brings a reference assistant onto the Mac: it can search your project material while helping with a meeting. Launched on 6 October, it uses local AI processing and can work with system audio and the microphone across meeting platforms or an in-person conversation.[2]

A useful first task is finding something you already have: the diagram showing an entrance, a passage explaining access arrangements, or the approved wording of a caption. This walkthrough follows Google’s published Mac documentation; we have not run the app. The exhibition example below is an original exercise, with fictional files and questions.

Start with a project you can recognise

Download Foresight through Google’s product page. Google describes it as optimised for Apple Silicon, without specifying minimum memory or storage on the inspected FAQ. It supports PDFs, Google Docs, Microsoft Office files, plain text, Markdown and web bookmarks, and can connect local folders and Google Drive.[1]

For this exercise, imagine you are helping organise a small photography exhibition. Create a reference folder containing the current hanging plan, the venue’s access information and the approved image captions. Use copies with clear names and dates. Keep the first collection small enough that you can recognise the correct answer when the assistant finds it.

Connect that folder in Foresight, then begin with a question whose answer you know. Ask for the relevant source as well as an answer. Open the returned reference and compare it with the file. This gives you a concrete starting point: the app has found the right material from this collection, for this question.

Give a question somewhere useful to land

Foresight combines two jobs. EmbeddingGemma 2 represents text, images, video and audio in a shared numerical space so related material can be retrieved across formats. Gemma 4 supplies contextual reasoning. Google describes the combination as a local retrieval-augmented generation pipeline: finding relevant material and using it to help form a response.[3]

That mechanism gives preparation a purpose. In the fictional exhibition folder, a question about unloading has a venue note to find. A question about the entrance wall has a plan. Asking for a missing catering agreement would require a new source; adding more eloquent instructions would not put that agreement into the collection.

When two documents disagree, make the difference part of the question. For example, ask which version names the side entrance and which names the front entrance. You can then establish which document governs the event with the organiser. The useful result is the two passages in view, ready for a decision in the conversation.

Use the references while people are talking

Google documents both conversational retrieval and Live Assistance. The latter listens for questions or topics linked to imported files and displays context cards with citations. During the meeting, you can use chat for a deliberate query or try the proactive cards when the discussion reaches a subject in your reference collection.[1]

Tell the other participants you are using a transcription assistant and follow the meeting’s recording arrangements. Then try a familiar question from the prepared folder. Look for the source you checked earlier and read the nearby conditions before using the answer. A context card is most useful when it helps you return to the discussion with the relevant detail.

Foresight also expands short notes using material from the current meeting transcript. You could jot down the issue you want to retain, then review the fuller note afterwards. Google says the app’s inference runs locally, including retrieval and note assistance, so this workflow can continue without an active internet connection once it is set up.[2]

Using a work account has an extra access step

If a Google Workspace account cannot sign in, Foresight’s FAQ points administrators to Early Access Apps and Core Data Access settings. These are organisation settings, so give the administrator the product’s FAQ rather than trying to resolve the restriction by moving work files into another account.[1]

Google’s administrator guide says Early Access apps and their core-service access are off by default. Administrators can enable access for selected groups or organisational units; the app switch covers the Early Access category rather than one individual app. The settings are under Apps, Additional Google services, Early Access Apps in the Admin console.[4]

A useful first session ends with a modest, recognisable result: you located the right reference during a discussion and retained a note you can understand later. Once that works for the exhibition folder, choose another small project whose source material you know. Expand the collection around the questions you actually need to answer.

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