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Whether you’re a professional writer or someone who dreads having to compose documents or emails for your job, the potential of AI assistance for your writing tasks is appealing. Powered by Gemini, Google’s generative AI platform, the Help Me Write tool in Google Docs and Gmail can write long passages of text that are reasonably readable.

It generates written text based on prompts (instructions) that you give it, which can give you a significant head start on any writing tasks. But its results come with caveats that may include factual errors, redundancy, and too-generic prose. And it’s never a good idea to use private or proprietary data when working with any generative AI tool.

This guide covers how to use Help Me Write in both Google Docs and Gmail to generate and rewrite text, and how to overcome some of the tool’s shortcomings.

Who can use Help Me Write?

If you have a Google Workspace account, the Gemini AI tools that include Help Me Write are available as part of your subscription. If you have a Google personal account, you can subscribe to Google One AI Premium to have access to these tools. Or, for no cost, you can sign up for access to Google Workspace Labs with your Google account to be permitted to try out Help Me Write and other experimental tools.

Use Help Me Write to generate text in Docs and Gmail

Working with Help Me Write is very similar in Google Docs and Gmail.

In Docs: To start using Help Me Write in Google Docs, either start a new document or load a document that already has text on it. Along the right of the document page is a vertical toolbar with a pencil icon on it.

If you start a new, blank document, you’ll also see a “Help me write” button with the same pencil icon at the top of the new document.

The “Help me write” buttons (at right side and top of the document) in Google Docs.

Howard Wen / Foundry

Click either version of this pencil icon. The “Help me write” panel will open over your document. Inside the panel, you’ll see several examples of prompts that scroll through, such as “Create a brand marketing manager resume” or “A thank you letter for my job interview.” These are meant to give you ideas as to how to write your own prompts.

Help Me Write provides suggestions for prompts you can ask it.

Howard Wen / Foundry

In Gmail: To launch Help Me Write in Gmail, start a new email and click the “Help me write” button (the same pencil icon as in Docs) on the toolbar along the bottom of the compose window. A text entry bar will appear at the bottom of the compose window. This is the Help Me Write tool. Just as in Docs, you’ll see examples of prompts scroll through, such as “A thank you letter for my job interview.”

In either app: Type in a prompt. In Google Docs, we entered, “A step-by-step plan for starting a small catering and events coordinator business as a side gig” to prompt a planning document.

Typing in a prompt for Help Me Write in Docs.

Howard Wen / Foundry

And in Gmail, we entered, “Follow-up to the client recipient asking how satisfied they are with our service, and invite the recipient to respond to me with more questions.”

Typing a Help Me Write prompt in Gmail.

Howard Wen / Foundry

In either app: After you type in your prompt, click Create. Help Me Write will show a “generating” animation as it processes your prompt. This may take several seconds; it depends on how complex the wording of your prompt request is. Then another panel will open displaying the text it generated, which might be sentences or whole paragraphs.

Next you’ll be able to refine the results in various ways, depending on whether you’re in Docs or Gmail.

In Docs: Below the results, you can click Refine. This action opens a dropdown menu that lets you select from the following options to alter the generated text:

• Tone: Clicking this opens two more options: Formal and Casual. Help Me Write will rewrite the generated text with wording at a higher academic reading level, or with a looser, more informal style, respectively.
• Summarize: Help Me Write will generate a summary of the text based on key points in it.
• Bulletize: If you write a prompt asking Help Me Write to generate step-by-step instructions, as we did in our example, it’s likely to create text formatted in a bulleted list. Otherwise, you can select this option to have Help Me Write reformat the text into bullet points.
• Elaborate: Help Me Write will generate additional text. But be aware that this may produce redundant wording if your prompt is short or lacks specific descriptions.
• Shorten: Help Me Write rewrites the generated text with fewer words.
• Retry: If you’re not satisfied with the text that Help Me Write generated, clicking this will instruct it to try again using your prompt.
• Custom: Type in a few words to prompt Help Me Write to refine the text in a way that’s not described above — for example, “shorten to 200 words” or “rewrite as paragraphs” — and click the right arrow.

You can refine the generated text before inserting it.

Howard Wen / Foundry

In Gmail: Below the resulting text generated by your prompt to Help Me Write, you can click Recreate or Refine.

• Recreate: If you’re not satisfied with the text that Help Me Write generated, clicking this will instruct Help Me Write to generate new results from your prompt.
• Refine: Clicking this opens a menu offering the same Formalize, Elaborate, and Shorten options described above.

Gmail offers some of the same options for refining generated text that Docs does.

Howard Wen / Foundry

In either app: If you select one of the refining options above, Help Me Write will generate one or more results. You can scroll through them to consider and compare them with the original passage of text that was generated by Help Me Write.

Optionally, you can click the thumbs up or thumbs down icon to rate the quality of the text that Help Me Write generated. Presumably, your rating helps to improve future results.

When you’re happy with the text that Help Me Write generated for you (the original or a refined version), click Insert to add it to your document or email draft. After you insert the generated text, it becomes regular text in the document or email that you can edit as you see fit.

Use Help Me Write to rewrite text in Docs and Gmail

You can use Help Me Write to rewrite text in a document or email draft, whether the text was originally written by you or generated by Help Me Write.

In Docs: Highlight the text (phrases, sentences, or paragraphs) that you want Help Me Write to rework, then click the Help me write pencil icon that appears floating over the selected text. A menu opens with Rephrase, Shorten, Elaborate, and More formal options, plus an area where you can type in your own modification prompt.

In Docs, you can have Help Me Write revise selected text in various ways.

Howard Wen / Foundry

After Help Me Write generates new text based on your selected refinement, you can click Replace to overwrite the passages of text that you highlighted in the document with the refined text, or click Insert to insert it right below your highlighted passages of text.

Help Me Write elaborates on the selected text in Docs.

Howard Wen / Foundry

In Gmail: You can use Help Me Write to rewrite your entire email draft — but unlike in Docs, you cannot have it rewrite individual phrases, sentences, or paragraphs.

Open the email draft. Click the Help me write pencil icon on the toolbar. On the menu that opens, you can select Polish, Formalize, Elaborate, or Shorten. Polish is an additional feature here that is meant for making a very rough draft email that you wrote sound more professional, by improving the grammar and sentence structure of your writing.

Help Me Write offers a polish option in Gmail for improving the grammar and sentence structure of an email draft.

Howard Wen / Foundry

After Help Me Write generates a new draft, you can start over, refine it further, or insert it into your email.

What about the Gemini sidebar?

All the Google Workspace apps now have a Gemini sidebar that pops open on the right when you click the Ask Gemini button –the nova star icon that’s right next to your user profile icon at the upper-right corner. In either Docs or Gmail, you can use this sidebar to type in a prompt instructing Gemini AI to generate text. But the resulting text is displayed in the sidebar, which is more difficult to see and work with than using Help Me Write in the body of the document or email.

While the Gemini sidebar does have several excellent uses (which we’ll cover in an upcoming story), it’s not the best interface for generating large amounts of text. In general, it works better to use the main Help Me Write interface for writing and rewriting tasks in both Docs and Gmail.

Use Help Me Write in the Gmail mobile app

Help Me Write is also available in the Gmail mobile app (for Android and iOS), which is handy for composing and refining messages on the go.

When you start a new email, swipe toward the right over the text cursor or tap the pencil icon on the toolbar along the top of the screen. Either action will open the “Help me write” panel, where you can enter a prompt to generate text for your email draft.

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Help Me Write is available in the Gmail mobile app.

Howard Wen / Foundry

You can also refine the text that Help Me Write generated, or rewrite text that you originally wrote. Tap the pencil icon on the toolbar along the top. This action will open a “Refine my draft” panel along the bottom; it will present the same refinement choices as the ones in the Gmail web app. Tap Polish, Formalize, Elaborate, or Shorten to perform these actions on your email draft.

Keep these caveats in mind and finesse the results

While Help Me Write can give you a head start on your business writing, it’s important to review and edit its output. Here are some shortcomings to look out for in its results:

Generic content: A lot of the passages that Help Me Write generates provide very basic information. Even if you phrase your prompts very specifically, the results may still sound canned.

Help Me Write often delivers generic prose.

Howard Wen / Foundry

Redundant content: Help Me Write may generate text that basically says the same thing as text it generated before. This can happen when you have it generate several paragraphs and then instruct it to elaborate on a specific sentence or paragraph. The additional text Help Me Write generates may read similarly to other passages that it’s already generated for you.

Factual errors: If you prompt Help Me Write to write about subjects that are based on factual information (such as current business analyses or trends) or of a technical nature, you should scrutinize its results. You should conduct further research, searching the web for reliable resources to confirm what Help Me Write has generated.

In addition to fact-checking, you should perform general editing on all the passages that Help Me Write generates. This includes reading through everything, then adding, rearranging, removing, and rewriting text as you feel is necessary. Practicing the craft of editing on the text generated by Help Me Write will help you shape your document or email into a final draft that’s informative and appealing for other people to read.

A useful collaboration tool

Although you can have Help Me Write generate documents or emails from scratch, it can serve you better if you approach it as a writing assistant. For example, you can prompt Help Me Write to assemble a rough outline for a business proposal or marketing plan that you then flesh out with your own writing.

It can also be useful for collaboration — as a brainstorming tool, for instance. Try collaborating with your co-workers on a shared document, where each person prompts Help Me Write to generate ideas for all to build on.

In fact, your interaction with Help Me Write is itself a form of collaboration. You prompt Help Me Write to generate text, its results may in turn give you ideas for how to approach a topic, and you keep working with the AI to refine those results in your final draft — thus, Help Me Write becomes your collaborator.

AI writing is simply the latest tool in the always-evolving working relationship between people and technology. As long as you understand its rules and limitations, Help Me Write can be a valuable aid to kickstart your writing process or refine what you’ve already written.

See more Google Workspace tips and tutorials.

This story was originally published in June 2023 and updated in February 2025.

Polish company Clone Robotics has unveiled Protoclone, a human-like robot equipped with synthetic muscles and a polymer skeleton consisting of 206 bones.

The YouTube clip below shows Protoclone using its synthetic muscles to move.

Protoclone has a 500-watt electric pump as its heart and four cameras for eyes. In addition, the robot has 320 pressure-sensitive sensors and 70 inertial sensors, according to Ars Technica.

In the future, this kind of robot could eventually help around the household — for example, by cooking, washing dishes and doing laundry.

Apple plans to inject billions of dollars into the US economy, spending $500 billion in the US over the next four years and promising expansion, new manufacturing facilities, and big investments in advanced manufacturing and R&D.

The announcement follows last week’s meeting between Apple CEO Tim Cook, and US President Donald J. Trump. “We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Cook said. “We’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation.”

In a comment on Truth Social, Trump said the investment reflected Apple’s “faith in what we are doing, without which, they wouldn’t be investing ten cents. Thank you Tim Cook and Apple.”

It remains to be seen whether Apple’s investments will be enough to mitigate the administration’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese goods. “They don’t want to be in the tariffs,” Trump said after meeting with Cook last week.

Apple announced a similar range of investments during the last term of the president, which did help protect iPhones against tariffs at that time.

What Apple is promising

It helps that Apple is one of America’s biggest taxpayers, having paid $75 billion in US taxes in the past five years. While some of those tax dollars should perhaps have been levied elsewhere, (as the EU insisted about Apple’s Irish tax breaks), the deeply nationalistic US administration most certainly wants that money paid at home.

Apple says its investment billions will be spent on a range of different things:

• The company will double its Advanced Manufacturing Fund
• It will build a new advanced manufacturing facility in Texas, where it will product Apple Intelligence servers.
• It intends to launch a manufacturing academy in Michigan.
• And it will invest more in R&D, including additional spending on silicon and AI development.

The $500-billion promise also includes its work with suppliers across the US, direct Apple hires, AI investments including data centers, and Apple TV+ productions in 20 states. The company currently claims to support more than 2.9 million jobs in the US.

What happens in Texas?

The factory in Houston, TX seems likely to attract the biggest focus. Apple’s big idea is to begin making Apple Intelligence servers there later this year, opening a 250,000-square-foot-server manufacturing center in which it promises thousands of jobs. 

What’s interesting about that promise is that it implies Apple intends to make a very large number of these servers and it means several things: that Apple will extend the services it offers via Private Cloud Compute; it intends wide international deployment of these servers; and (speculatively) it will offer these private cloud services as a business in its own right. An iOS developer might want to use space in the private cloud to provide AI services, for example.

None of these educated guesses could turn out correct, but a factory with thousands of employees is going to be producing something in very significant quantities. Apple will also expand data center capacity in North Carolina, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona, and Nevada.

Advanced Manufacturing Fund

Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund has made some key investments in support of third-party innovation as it is applied to Apple products in the past — think about Corning Glass, for example. The latest promise includes a massive $10 billion investment in skills development at Apple’s planned academy in Detroit, MI and billions in support of TSMC’s Fab 21 plant in Arizona.

And with a view to Industry 3.0, the Apple Manufacturing Academy will consult with small and mid-sized companies on implementing AI and smart manufacturing techniques. It will provide free in-person and online courses, with a skills development curriculum that teaches workers skills like project management and manufacturing process optimization.

In the national interest

What is interesting is the extent to which Apple today can make significant investments in the US that were perhaps less possible during the first Trump Presidency.

Today’s Apple is significantly less umbilically connected to China, for example. It is putting in place a distributed manufacturing and supply chain and has been working hard with key suppliers such as TSMC to bring at least some production to the US. That will include processor production in Arizona. Apple will never be able to base all its manufacturing in the US, but the promise of tens of thousands of additional jobs does mean something. 

It is also highly significant that much of Apple’s promises relate to artificial intelligence — including skills, manufacturing, and R&D. That matters because AI development is quite clearly in the US national interest, and Apple’s multi-billion dollar investment in the field will make a significant difference to US tech power.

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A new Brookings Institution report on generative AI (genAI) found that the more highly skilled a tech worker is, the more vulnerable they are to having their jobs supplemented by the technology.

That differs dramatically from past automation technologies that primarily displaced low-skilled or physical laborers, according to Brookings, a Washington-based nonprofit public policy research firm.

While IT workers can be found in virtually any organization today, genAI will have its greatest impact on jobs in high-tech geographical regions such as Silicon Valley, Seattle, WA., and Cambridge, MA., where highly skilled workers are concentrated. The report asserts that genAI tools will target cognitive tasks — such as writing, coding, and data analysis — impacting professionals in fields like software development, legal analysis, and finance.

[ Related: Copilot for Microsoft 365 explained: GenAI meets Office apps ]

The report challenges earlier analyses that predicted genAI would mainly automate routine, repetitive tasks, and it highlights the growing risk to white-collar jobs and highly educated workers. But Brookings researchers said the technology is unlikely to eliminate jobs entirely. Instead, it will create a scenario where professionals must work alongside AI, using it as an augmentation tool rather than as a full replacement.

GenAI has already proven itself to be an effective coder, assisting developers in creating new applications. That, coupled with the fact that the demand for skilled software developers is rising, will drive genAI adoption.

Research firm IDC has forecast a shortage of four million developers this year, and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects nearly 200,000 developer jobs to open annually through 2030. By 2027, genAI tools that can assist in the creation, testing and operation of software are expected to be adopted by half of all enterprise software engineers, according to a study by Gartner Research.

Online coding platform Replit, for example, recently partnered with AI research company Anthropic and Google to help non-technical Zillow employees contribute to software development. The new applications are now being used to route more than 100,000 home shoppers to agents.

“The Brookings report presents a compelling case that AI will have a unique impact on knowledge workers and high-tech regions,” said Peter Miscovich, Global Future of Work Leader at JLL Consulting. “While this is a crucial shift from past waves of automation, it does not mean that AI will spare lower-level jobs entirely. Instead, AI’s influence will be widespread, reshaping industries at multiple levels.”

Miscovich referred to the Brookings report as “a bit nuanced” in that it also indicates lower-skilled technology, operations, and customer service workers will also be affected by the fast-evolving technology.

While manual workers are less affected, as robots haven’t fully replaced most of those jobs, AI-enabled robots are on the rise, according to Miscovich, “and our sense is that manual job disruption will come about at some future point in time.”

Will AI really spare lower-level jobs?

Nearly four in 10 Americans believe genAI could diminish the number of available jobs, according to a study conducted by Deloitte and released in October by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. And the World Economic Forum’s Jobs Initiative study found that close to half (44%) of worker skills will be disrupted in the next five years — and 40% of tasks will be affected by the use of genAI tools and the large language models (LLMs) that underpin them.

The Deloitte results highlight younger workers’ growing anxiety around AI replacing jobs — and the actions they’re taking to improve their own job security. Deloitte’s survey of 1,874 full- and part-time workers from the US, Canada, India, and Australia — roughly two-thirds of whom are early career workers — found that 34% are pursuing a professional qualification or certification courses, 32% are starting their own businesses or becoming self-employed, and 28% are even adding part-time contractor or gig work to supplement their income.

Despite the Brookings report’s assertion that AI will primarily affect high-skilled jobs, there is evidence to suggest it will continue to replace low-wage, repetitive jobs as well, according to Miscovich, including:

• Customer service and call centers: AI chatbots and virtual assistants are already replacing entry-level call center jobs. Large corporations are integrating AI-driven customer service platforms, reducing the need for human representatives.
• Administrative and clerical Roles: Generative AI tools can automate document processing, email responses, scheduling, and data entry, roles traditionally performed by administrative staff.
• Retail and fast-food automation: AI-powered self-checkouts, robotic food preparation, and inventory management systems continue to reduce the need for human workers in retail and food service.

“Thus, while Brookings suggests that AI will hit high-tech jobs the hardest, it is probably more accurate to say that AI will affect a broad range of jobs across skill levels,” Miscovich said.

Key trends to watch, according to Miscovich, include:

• New roles and AI-augmented work: Many professionals will need to shift from purely technical jobs to roles that require human-AI collaboration. For example, software engineers might shift toward AI model training and oversight rather than coding from scratch.
• Upskilling and reskilling initiatives: Governments and corporations will need to invest in workforce retraining programs to help displaced workers transition into roles that require human judgment, creativity, and oversight of AI systems.
• Hybrid workforce models: Companies will integrate AI into workflows but still require human employees to handle complex problem-solving, ethical considerations, and customer interactions that AI cannot fully replicate.

Rather than viewing AI as a job destroyer, it is better to consider it as a force for transformation, Miscovich said. “Workers across industries will need to adapt, reskill, and learn to collaborate with AI rather than compete against it,” he said. “The key challenge for policymakers and businesses will be ensuring that AI-driven economic shifts do not exacerbate existing inequalities but instead create new opportunities across all regions and professions.”

Sarah Hoffman, director of AI research at AlphaSense and formerly vice president of AI and Machine Learning Research at Fidelity Investments, said genAI will change the future of work and how companies deploy the fast-moving technology over the next few years.

The arrival of genAI tools in business will allow workers to move toward more creative endeavors — as long as they learn how to use the new tools and even collaborate with them. What will emerge is a “symbiotic” relationship with an increasingly “proactive” technology that will require employees to constantly learn new skills and adapt, she said in an earlier interview with Computerworld.

“As AI automates more processes, the role of workers will shift,” Hoffman said. “Jobs focused on repetitive tasks may decline, but new roles will emerge, requiring employees to focus on overseeing AI systems, handling exceptions, and performing creative or strategic functions that AI cannot easily replicate.

Gartner analyst: Brookings is wrong

Gartner analyst Nate Suda outright disagreed with the Brookings report findings.

“Generative AI will automate some tasks, for sure — possibly even roles, in time,” Suda said. “However, the Brookings report’s conflation of genAI with automation is a fallacy. In many cases, [the] productivity impact of genAI is a second-order effect. GenAI creates a special relationship with the worker, changes the worker, and that change impacts productivity.”

Gartner found that low-experience workers in low-complexity roles, such as call centers, saw a productivity boost — not from AI’s automation capabilities, but from its ability to help them learn their job more effectively. That, in turn, led to higher productivity from workers using genAI, a phenomenon known as “experience compression,” or the ability for the technology to accelerate learning.

GenAI, Suda argued, boosts productivity for highly experienced workers in complex roles, like corporate finance or software engineering, by acting as a thought partner. That effect, he said, is known as “skill magnification,” where the technology amplifies employee capabilities, creativity, and productivity, leading to greater impact.

As time spent on tasks increases, so does the quality and quantity of output, making productivity rise disproportionately, according to Suda. “GenAI’s true strength lies in inspiring creativity and teaching, not just automating tasks,” he said.

In a significant escalation of transatlantic tensions over tech regulation, US House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has demanded clarification from the EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera regarding the enforcement of the EU’s digital marketplace rules, citing concerns about potential discrimination against American companies.

The move comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s recent memorandum announcing heightened scrutiny of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), reported Reuters.

“Regulations that dictate how American companies interact with consumers in the European Union, like the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, will face scrutiny from the Administration,” Trump said in the memorandum signed on February 21.

These regulations establish strict guidelines for how major technology companies operate within the European Union’s digital marketplace, representing the most comprehensive attempt to regulate digital platforms globally.

The DMA, which primarily affects the US’ big tech including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, implements a comprehensive framework of rules aimed at ensuring fair competition and expanded consumer choice in digital markets.

However, US officials argue these regulations may disproportionately impact American technology companies, potentially creating barriers to innovation and global market access.

“We write to express our concerns that the DMA may target American companies,” the report said citing Jordan’s letter to the EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera.

DMA’s crackdown on big tech

The DMA introduced unprecedented restrictions and requirements for companies designated as “gatekeepers” in the digital market. These companies must comply with a strict set of rules designed to prevent unfair business practices and ensure market accessibility for smaller competitors.

The Act mandates various requirements including interoperability for core platform services, restrictions on personal data combination across services, and prohibition of self-preferencing practices in rankings and search results.

“Big tech’s designated platforms can no longer unfairly promote their own products or services above yours (EU-based companies) in search results or ads,” one of the clauses of the DMA says pertaining to offering level playing.

Companies must also allow users to uninstall pre-installed applications and provide business users with access to platform data.

“Data generated by your business on designated big tech platforms won’t be used by them to outcompete you,” another clause of the act reads.

US concerns and opposition

In their letter to Ribera, Jordan and Scott Fitzgerald, chairman of the subcommittee on administrative state, regulatory reform, and antitrust, raised several critical concerns that reflect broader US apprehensions about the European regulatory framework.

The enforcement mechanism of the DMA, which includes fines of up to 10% of global annual revenues for violations, is viewed by US officials as potentially serving dual purposes: forcing companies to adopt European standards globally and functioning as a de facto tax on American businesses. This could significantly impact the global operations and profitability of US tech companies.

“American businesses will no longer prop up failed foreign economies through extortive fines and taxes,” the Trump-signed memorandum read, though without naming the EU or any specific economy. “My Administration will not allow American companies and workers and American economic and national security interests to be compromised by one-sided, anti-competitive policies and practices of foreign governments.”

The lawmakers also expressed serious concerns about data security and competition, arguing that certain DMA requirements could potentially benefit Chinese competitors.

They contend that the regulations could “stifle innovation, disincentivize research and development, and hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations,” the Reuters report added.

International implications and market impact

The implementation of the DMA has far-reaching implications for global digital markets and international trade relations. The regulations could fundamentally alter how major technology platforms operate worldwide, as companies may need to adjust their global practices to comply with EU requirements.

The impact of the DMA is expected to be substantial across various dimensions of digital business. Major tech platforms will likely need to implement significant operational changes while bearing increased compliance costs.

Importantly, the EU and the US share the world’s most extensive bilateral trade and investment partnership, marked by deep economic integration. As each other’s largest trading partners, their combined trade in goods and services reached $1.73 trillion (€1.6 trillion) in 2023. This equates to $4.75 billion (€4.4 billion) worth of goods and services exchanged across the Atlantic every day.

The regulations may necessitate restructuring of digital services in the EU market, potentially creating new opportunities for European tech companies and startups, while simultaneously shifting the dynamics of global digital competition.

European Commission’s stance

Meanwhile, the European Commission — where Ribera serves as the second-highest ranking official under President Ursula von der Leyen — maintains that these regulations are not targeted at US companies, according to the report.

The Commission argued that the DMA is designed to ensure fair competition and consumer choice in digital markets, regardless of companies’ national origin. However, the predominance of US firms among those affected has intensified transatlantic tensions over digital policy.

Jordan and Fitzgerald have requested Ribera to brief the judiciary committee by March 10, signaling the US government’s intent to monitor the implementation and enforcement of these regulations closely. This development suggests an increasing focus on digital policy in transatlantic relations and could potentially impact future trade negotiations and regulatory cooperation between the US and the EU.

US feds are reportedly investigating a $32 million deal inked by CrowdStrike with a government reseller to provide cybersecurity tools for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — products the agency never used and said it didn’t even purchase.

On the last day of Q3 2023, the security giant signed a contract with top government software reseller Carahsoft Technology Corp. for use of its identity threat detection software by the IRS, according to a Bloomberg report. The timing seems to be a critical component of the investigation, as the transaction was large enough for CrowdStrike to meet Wall Street expectations for the quarter.

Given that IRS usage hasn’t materialized, some, including, Bloomberg said, CrowdStrike’s own employees, have raised concerns about pre-booking — the inflation of sales figures to meet investor expectations.

However, a CrowdStrike spokesperson told Computerworld: “We stand by the accounting of the transaction.” Carahsoft did not reply to Computerworld’s requests for comment.

IRS: We never purchased CrowdStrike software

According to two people who spoke with Bloomberg on agreement of anonymity, investigators for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been conducting interviews with CrowdStrike and IRS staff and collecting records related to the deal, including written documents exchanged between IRS, CrowdStrike, and Carahsoft employees.

Investigators are asking witnesses about any interactions between CrowdStrike sales staff and IRS employees, and have repeatedly queried whether the agency purchased CrowdStrike software, to which they’ve repeatedly been told “no”, according to the anonymous sources.

Previously, CrowdStrike and Carahsoft said they had settled on a “non-cancellable order,” but they haven’t said whether there was indeed a purchase order in place from the IRS.

After the deal was finalized and CrowdStrike reported its third quarter results, company shares jumped 10%. CEO George Kurtz even seemed to call the deal out in the quarterly earnings call, saying that “identity threat protection wins in the quarter included an eight-figure total deal value win in the federal government.”

However, several months later, CrowdStrike appeared to backtrack, excluding roughly $26 million from its annual recurring revenue, citing a federal distributor’s intent to exercise transferability rights.

Carahsoft, for its part, has been under scrutiny for some time now. The FBI searched its Reston, Virginia headquarters last year in a matter related to another partner, and federal prosecutors are performing a separate civil investigation into whether the company conspired to overcharge the government.

Pre-sales a ‘leadership problem’

Experts and analysts say the CrowdStrike-Carahsoft narrative emphasizes the pressure placed on enterprise IT buyers and sellers to sign deals before end-of-quarter (EOQ).

“Quarter-end deal pressure is one of the most predictable yet high-stakes dynamics in enterprise IT negotiations,” Adam Mansfield, commercial advisory practice leader with IT negotiation advisors UpperEdge, told Computerworld.

Vendor sales reps push hard to lock in revenue, typically tied to new product adoption, upgrades, or expanded usage, before closing their books, he said, “often dangling so-called ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ aggressive discounting to secure commitments.”

Scott Bickley, advisory fellow at Info-Tech Research Group, agreed. “Buyers have been conditioned by vendors who are publicly traded to strategically position deals at EOQ and preferably at the end of the vendor’s fiscal year,” he said.

But while urgency can create opportunity, it also carries significant risks, Mansfield pointed out. Committing to products and/or volumes that aren’t fully vetted, and misalignment of contract terms, can later cause financial damage, particularly when these new products come with non-cancelable subscriptions.

“The practice often creates more problems than it solves,” agreed SaaS and service brand consultant Chad Perry. “Deals get ‘booked’ under false pretenses, contracts get renegotiated (or canceled) post-quarter, and the next thing you know, the company is explaining ‘revenue recognition issues’ on an earnings call.”

While, at the end of the day, the blame may land in the sales department, “pre-booking is never just a sales problem,” he said. “It’s a leadership problem.”

Buyers’ opportunity in EOQ deals

For buyers, EOQ deals can both exploit and be exploited, experts point out.

In the case of IT buyers, understanding this pressure can actually be a strategic advantage, Perry noted. “If you know the seller is under quarter-end stress, you have leverage,” he said. “You can negotiate better terms, push for extras, or even delay and see what they offer to close.”

Mansfield emphasized that the key for IT buyers is to seek out opportunity in vendor urgency, while at the same time maintaining control. This means ensuring pricing is truly competitive and securing proper concessions (such as protections). The worst-case scenario: Committing to costly products and fees only to see plans unravel due to business shifts, internal delays, lack of realized value, or vendor-side complications.

“Smart buyers use quarter-end pressure to their advantage, but never let it dictate the terms of their agreements,” said Mansfield.