Summarize Partner Due Diligence Material with Google Docs AI

What This Does

Before a first call with a partner candidate, you usually read through press releases, product pages, and a handful of LinkedIn posts to get oriented. Google Docs' built-in Gemini can turn a pile of pasted material into a one-page brief with key facts and open questions, right inside the doc you're already using to take call notes.

Before You Start

• You have a Google Workspace account with Gemini enabled (Business Standard, $14/user/month)
• You're working in a Google Doc (docs.google.com)
• You've gathered the source material you want summarized: press releases, an About page, recent LinkedIn posts, whatever the partner has published publicly

Steps

1. Open the AI panel

Open a new or existing Google Doc. Look for a sparkle icon near the top right of the toolbar, sometimes labeled "Ask Gemini." Clicking it opens a side panel where you can type instructions. In a blank document you may also see a "Help me write" prompt appear directly in the body. Either entry point reaches the same feature.

2. Paste your source material and ask for a brief

Paste the press releases, product page text, or LinkedIn posts into the doc, or into the side panel if it accepts pasted text directly. Then ask for what you need: "Summarize this into a one-page brief covering what they do, who they serve, and any existing partnerships. Add three open questions I should ask on our first call."

3. Refine the draft

Gemini offers follow-up controls after a first pass, things like Formalize, Shorten, Elaborate, and Rephrase, plus a free-text box for a custom instruction. If the summary buries the lead, type "put the open questions at the top" and let it restructure. Chaining two or three small refinements usually beats accepting the first draft as written.

Real Example

Scenario: You're evaluating a mid-market logistics software vendor as a potential integration partner and have a call scheduled for Thursday.

What you type/do: Paste the company's last two press releases and their partnerships page into the doc, then ask Gemini: "Summarize this into a one-page brief: what they do, who they serve, any existing partnerships, and three questions I should open the call with."

What you get: A short brief with the vendor's product focus, customer segment, named partnerships already in place, and three specific questions, ready to skim two minutes before the call instead of re-reading four browser tabs.

Tips

• Since March 2026, Gemini in Docs can also pull context from your own Gmail and Drive when you reference them directly in a prompt (say, "compare this to the notes in my last call doc with a similar vendor"). Keep that feature turned off for due diligence docs where another partner's terms might live in a nearby file. If a summary references a deal you didn't ask about, treat it as a signal your prompt was too broad.
• Cross-check every fact the brief states as fact, funding numbers, exec names, launch dates, against the original source before it goes into a call brief. Gemini paraphrases well but occasionally shifts a date or a figure in the process.
• Save a strong brief format as a template once you land on a structure that works, so you're not rewriting your prompt from scratch for the next candidate.

Tool interfaces change. If a button has moved, look for similar AI/Gemini/sparkle options in the Docs toolbar or Insert menu.