Google is quietly rolling out a redesign of the logos for its Workspace apps, including Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive. They now look like they’ve been run through a watercolor filter.
Each new logo in the suite—which began showing up on May 18 on the web, Android, and iOS—is softer and rounder than its predecessor. What really stands out, though: Every single icon has been given some sort of color gradient.
Gmail now smoothly transitions through Google’s brand palette of primary colors and green; Google Meet and Google Chat have lost the full palette in favor of yellow and green aura schemes, respectively; and Google Docs has gone from a flat blue to a subtle fusion of blue and purple.
This is the first time Google has updated its Workspace icons since 2020, and it’s a clear effort to visually denote its shift into the AI era. More broadly, the pivot confirms a trend that Fast Company predicted back in October: The gradient is emerging as the defining color schematic of the AI era.
According to Ben Sherwood, creative partner at the agency Design Bridge and Partners, we’re currently witnessing a collective pivot from the “stark simplicity of flat design” toward “what could be termed the ‘AI gradient everywhere’ aesthetic.”
Buttholes, voids, and sparkles
Since ChatGPT debuted in 2022, designers have faced the novel challenge of figuring out how to visually represent a technology as powerful and amorphous as AI in a way that sparks curiosity rather than skepticism.
Several distinct logo shapes have already solidified themselves as hallmarks of the early AI transition—some almost to the point of parody. There are the plain circles used by Meta and Grok; the twinkling sparkle that appears on Google’s Gemini chatbot, Adobe Photoshop’s generative image filler, Grammarly’s language fixer, and Wix’s auto website maker; and the swirling, nebulous void used by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity (sometimes called the “AI butthole”).
And then there’s the gradient. Of course, gradients are nothing new; they’ve long been a motif of choice for tech companies (see Instagram and Apple Music). But for Big Tech companies, they’ve become an almost unavoidable motif. Apple Intelligence, Google Gemini, and Meta AI all incorporate gradients in their logos. Microsoft has added gradients to both its Copliot logo and its entire suite of Office icons. Back in September, Google reworked its iconic “G” into a four-color gradient, which it’s now following with the new Workspace icons.
Branding experts say there are a few factors driving the popularity of gradients in the AI space—and, for better or worse, it’s unsurprising that tech companies are flocking to them rather than aiming to stand out.
Why every AI company is using gradients
Surface level, there’s a practical reason that gradients are having a moment. Drew Stocker, creative director at Pearlfisher, says advances in rendering and production technology have made gradients more achievable and consistent than ever before.
“For Google, the move toward dimensional iconography feels like a natural evolution: Gradients add depth and approachability that flat color can’t, and in a digital-first context, the execution is well within reach,” Stocker says.
Moving away from flat color carries the added advantage of allowing tech companies to signal a clear departure from tech’s late-2010s mobile-transition era (defined by a minimalist aesthetic and logo “blanding”) into a new AI age.
“It wasn’t that long ago that every app flattened itself into geometric minimalism,” says Ben Williams, global chief creative officer at the digital agency Dept. “The internet demanded efficiency. Icons needed to load fast, scale small, and sit neatly inside app grids. The result was ‘blanding’: a sea of interchangeable logos optimized for screens and stripped of personality.”
Now the pendulum is swinging back. Companies want their products to feel less mechanical and more approachable. To do that, they’re stripping back on solid colors and harsh angles in favor of gradients, translucency, softer curves, and fluid interfaces.
This emerging aesthetic is a kind of modern take on skeuomorphism, an early 2000s-era design trend that blended realism with digital design (think Instagram’s original camera logo). Even Apple, which has long abandoned its iconic skeuomorphic origins in favor of simplicity, has recently begun to bring more color and dimension back into its brand.
The irony, Williams says, is that in order to escape the sea of sameness, brands are “converging all over again.” Big Tech companies aping each others’ aesthetics is a tale as old as time—and, per Anthony Cappetta, partner and creative director at the creative studio Super Okay, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
“When everyone adopts a similar visual language, it signals compliance with established digital norms,” Cappetta says. “There’s a shared advantage in looking familiar and ‘safe’ within the ecosystem, especially for massive platforms where aesthetic shifts are scrutinized heavily. It’s less about being original and more about being instantly legible and trustworthy at scale.”
In 2026, Williams adds, a gradient is a brand badge that quietly says, “We, too, are an AI company.”
