One of the more optimistic hopes for an AI-infused world is that it can help automate routine tasks – freeing us up to focus on what matters most. In that future, we often hear metaphors like “collaborator,” “assistant,” or “guide.”
But one of the emerging superpowers of generative AI is its ability to handle specific tasks with tailored instructions. That’s where custom chatbots come in.
Instead of opening up an LLM and asking a one-off question about your next trip to Alaska, what if you could build a tool that remembers the details of that trip, your preferences, your budget, your timing, and help you plan each step? That’s exactly what Gems are for.
While all the major LLMs have some way to create a custom chatbot, in this activity, you’ll create your own Gem, a personalized chatbot powered by Google Gemini that can help you with something you care about.
What Are Gems?
Google explains it this way:
“Gems are customized versions of Gemini that help you tackle repetitive tasks or get deep expertise in new areas. When you chat with a Gem, Gemini will tailor responses to save time on repeat goals and guidelines in your Gemini web app and Gemini mobile app prompts.”
In the Watch Or Read Section below there is a step-by-step walkthrough but the basic steps to creating your own Gem are:
The Basic Steps for Creating a Gem
- Go to gemini.google.com and sign in using your W&M account (or your personal Google account if you prefer).
- In the sidebar, click “Explore Gems” then “New Gem.”
- Give your Gem a name that reflects its purpose (e.g. Travel Buddy, Grant Writing Coach, Weekly Meal Planner).
- Add custom instructions—this is where you tell the Gem what you want it to help with. (Don’t worry, you can use Gemini to revise what you come up with.)
- Save your Gem and start chatting with it!
Optional: If you want to spend some time doing a little brain-storming first – download our brainstorming worksheet
Activity: Build Your Own Gem
Step-by-step Web Instructions (from Google)
or
Step-by-step Video Walkthrough (9:17 min)
Discussion
What kind of Gem did you create, and what is its main purpose? (Briefly describe what your Gem is designed to do and why you chose that focus.)
What was your experience like giving your Gem instructions?(Was it easy or challenging to describe what you wanted? What did you learn about how prompts shape the AI’s behavior?)
27 replies on “thing 15: Create Your Own Google Gem”
I created a Gem that’s main purpose was a weekly healthy meal plan! My initial request was for a weekly plan that included mostly fruit, vegetables, poultry and fish – with options for healthy snacks. This was fairly easy and quite enjoyable to work with Gemini prompts and my responses with additional prompts. The final weekly meal plan – with recipes- looked great! I am now going to give it a try and see how the meals work in real life. My Gem was like a very useful assistant.
I created a Gem to help create a running plan and general health and wellness tips. I specifically asked for it to make a plan to increase my weekly mileage and gave it the context of my current mileage, pace, and frequency. It was really easy to use and gave me info that easily converted to a table when I asked it to. I think the context and rules that it was given during creation were helpful in that you don’t have to give as specific prompts because it always knows what you generally want it to do.
I did something simple. Created a gem to help plan a trip to two of Hawaiian island, The Big Island and Kauai, for two weeks. it was interesting, it told me how much everything could cost, where to stay to lower cost, like verbo, how I much I may be spending on food. And place to visit! It was helpful in giving ideas, asking question to improve the my experience for my trip. It was fun to bounce of ideas and ask detailed questions and get informative answers. 😂 I feel this type of stuff is fun and helpful with AI or Gem.
I created a Gem to help brainstorm ideas for the creation and development of a work project. I asked for 4-5 ideas for topics, and it gave me 4, only one of which I was very interested in. It’s clear that it doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. It offered topics that were inappropriate for my specific use but topics that might be very appropriate for others who are doing similar tasks. (I don’t want to give away my project just yet as it is in development.)
I was a little disappointed in my results at first, and I think that was because this was the first time I have used Gem, and I needed to be more specific in helping it develop its “personality” and “job description.” Because I have worked so much with ChatGPT on this project and ChatGPT knows so much about the it, I asked ChatGPT for help in setting up my Gem. It did not disappoint. It helped me develop more detailed instructions with deeper explanations of my project, audience, focus, tone, and prompts. I was amazed at the difference in Gem’s output after I gave it more comprehensive information about how to behave. The output was quite rich and very applicable to what I need. So, in addition to the prompt, perhaps the instructions one provides to Gem is even more important.
I created a Gem to help me sort through Williamsburg real estate listings. After several revisions, it did not do at all what I needed. It did not provide photos (although explicitly requested), it was not able to parse text to identify specific characteristics (like whether the property had a garage), it didn’t link together information on neighborhoods and properties. Basically, it was unable to search, scan, and sort in a way that was helpful to me. Perhaps more prompt engineering would get it closer to what I need.
This seems really interesting, but I’m not going to create a Gem. However, I will provide a summary of a conversation between myself and my partner, who is working on his Ph.D. in software engineering and AI. Mind you, I’m still not quite understanding everything, so some things may not be said correctly or understood well by me. In short, a huge problem/mystery is getting AI to move from providing probabilistic results to actual reasoning. One example of this is counting. AI isn’t good at it, but this is something that humans take for granted. Humans understand that one apple is a singular apple. Two apples are a couple, etc. And I think a basis for our understanding of counting is that we recognize when there is more or less of something. AI isn’t at that stage yet. So, one idea is creating a code (or perhaps a Gem?) that would basically give the instructions to the LLM that would mimic reasoning, but the LLM really isn’t reasoning. It’s just following the instructions.
The Gem I created was of a personal trainer who focused on clients with injuries or disabilities and could give alternative exercises. I also gave it a list of one rep maxes and run scores. My goal was to generate weekly exercise plans that gave goal weights and alternative exercises.
It was pretty easy asking it prompts and it would explain why each alternative exercise was chosen based on the injury. However, I did run into an issue where if I gave it non specific Gem instructions it would refuse to do anything if I didn’t have an injury in the prompt. I changed the Gem instructions to indicate that its client had an injured lower back and did not need to specify anything to get an output.
I created a Gem to help with Meal Planning, prepping and shopping for groceries for a week for 2 people with specific caloric need. It “cooked” up a great plan, using meal prepping on Sunday, avoiding foods that are not liked, and making sure I have left overs for the next day. The Gem even added in the serving size to stay within the caloric range. I am impressed and will try this!
I created a Gem to plan out my vacation to the Pacific Northwest. To be honest, when I first started, I wasn’t sure if this would be helpful because things change so fast (closure, road change, etc.); so I was expecting something very basic (I thought maybe it would just give me the basic recommendations of what to do in Washington state without specific planning). But as I gave it more detail (how much I wanted to spend, how much time do I have, my preference on driving less, what activities do I want to do), it gave me an entire itinerary that is detailed and accurate. I did end up googling/reading more online to make sure all things are correct and got more detailed information on specific changes, but I’d say AI trip planning is getting scarily good.
I have a hard time thinking of a Gem that I would actually find useful beyond what I could fairly easily use internet search for myself. It seems like a lot of overhead to use an entire GenAI system for many of these tasks. They’re consuming gigantic quantities of energy already–why use GenAI to do something that you could also just type into your browser’s search bar?
I created a weekly recipe finder with 5 or fewer ingredients and ones that are basic pantry staples. It didn’t seem much different that a regular Chatbot. I might try again with a different Gem in mind, but I couldn’t think of anything at the time. I might try something that could suggest texts for my course and then vet if I’ve read them or are familiar with them or not.
I created a total work out planner. Combing running lifting and recovery. It might have not been the best but it was free and very very intuitive. I learned it was not perfect but it also depends on the effort I put in.
I tried to three times to make a gem and then I gave up. I’m not actually sure I would use such a thing because I’m not interested in automating tasks that I see my own voice as part of– like writing letters of rec or grading– and I don’t really need a meal planner or a vacation guide right now. It’s interesting to know that these things exist. Based on what I learned form the previous AI Thing on how people are using GenAI, this seems to be in line with the growing desire to have GenAI assist with the logistics of personal life.
I am trying to use Gem to plan a trip, and I am starting to see how it can be convenient. I like that it provides links to many recommendations, so I can easily look up the specifics. I have read that people who consciously invest time (weeks) in developing a topical chat are generally very pleased with the results. I wonder if I can do something to motivate myself to improve my life style.
To be honest, I had a hard time coming up with the correct instructions to create my own Gem. Instead, I decided to try out one of the pre-set options. I ended up using the Gem for finding the perfect gift for someone. I was able to describe my husband (very challenging to buy for!), with his age, hobbies and a price range. It gave me several ideas. I chose the one I liked best and asked some clarifying questions. It gave me some great suggestions within my price range. I think I’ll hang onto the list for Christmas this year!
I created a Gem to plan a week-long vacation for a family of 4 during my kids spring break. I gave it a number of options, to include departure airport and destination being anywhere from Europe, Caribbean, to Park City. Gave some good options, but when I asked to search again using AMEX travel reward points, it looked just using a standard estimate of $.01 per point and didn’t look at the airlines and hotel chains that AMEX partners with and can transfer points. Will continue to work with the prompts to help provide travel options.
I created a Gem called The Idea Gardener, whose main purpose is to help me plant little “seed” ideas for essays, projects, or emails and then grow them into something polished and ready to share. I chose this because I often get stuck staring at a blank page, and I liked the idea of an idea helper that feels more like a creative partner than just a tool. Giving my Gem instructions was both fun and a bit challenging cause I had to think carefully about how I wanted it to “sound” and what kind of guidance would feel supportive without taking over. It reminded me that the way you phrase a prompt is almost like giving stage directions.
I was a bit leery about this at first, but I asked for an itinerary for an upcoming trip with a certain budget. It gave me great information which I am going to use as I plan the trip!
I created a Gem to help me organize my weekly schedule and assignments. At first it gave me a pretty generic plan, but when I added more context about classes and deadlines, it felt more tailored. Instructions definitely mattered.
What kind of Gem did you create, and what is its main purpose? I created a gem to help with an upcoming trip. I haven’t flown in a very long time and it makes me nervous for a variety of reasons. I asked for it to walk me through the process of checking in and navigating an airport (last time i flew I was a child so I really don’t know what to do). And it provided good feedback, and even gave me helpful information that I was not expecting, and in an encouraging tone (which was unexpected). After a few more prompts I had it turn these topics into a few checklist (who doesn’t love a checklist). And I was pleased with the results. I thought chatting with it was easy overall.
I created a travel agent with a specialization in budget trips to Asia. I managed to tailor and give custom instructions relatively easily, and even attached a copy of the school calendar so it would know when breaks are and what days are available for travel. After prompting it was able to generate various itineraries for a number of different destinations, offering price to value comparisons and even accounted for meals in the pricing using local menus.
I created a Gem to help me organize my to do list. After prompting about priorities it was able to give me a variety of options on how to tackle the work I needed to get done.
I ‘created’ a gem that can meal plan for specific nutrient targets (35g fiber and 20 or less grams saturated fat). I had to be very specific with it for it to work initially (budget friendly meal plan was the phrase that worked). It did not understand the phrase ‘hit these nutrition goals’ but ‘supply nutrients’ worked. It’s easy to change the gems response–I got a meal plan, grocery list, etc, all meeting the nutrition goals I requested in about 10 mins. It’s not easy to verify how it is determining the nutrient content of foods–so I feel uncertain about the accuracy of such a convenient and actionable plan.
I created a gem that helps with meal planning. I enjoy cooking, but on the day-to-day I need recipes that are quick, easy, and healthy. My gem was able to help plan a weekly meal schedule and you could ask for alternatives when wanted. Of course, as I am learning, the more detailed the information that you prompt with is, the better your result will be.
I created a gem to help brainstorm dinner ideas. It can get hard to come up with choices every day! I used it to help think beyond what we had done recently and it seems like the more it was used the more helpful it would be. I’m not sure i’ll remember to use it, but I can see the value.
I created a gem to help me organize and summarize known mathematical results (and also open problems) in a specific area. It did a satisfactory job, though the findings were far from being complete. My attempts to persuade it trying to solve one of the one problems were futile.
I created a gem to help me with recipes that take into consideration for each of my family member’s different dietary restrictions. It gave some great recipes, then I realized I entered some restrictions that were not clear, like “no fried food” when I should have written, “no deep fried foods.” I think I’m going to continue to use this little Gem each week. It will probably make shopping easier and make the, “what’s for dinner, mom,” question a lot easier to answer.