never figured out on how to activate it in my workspace

Same here. I feel like Google's products have become such a labyrinth of features, settings, integrations, separate (but not really) products, that navigating them requires an expert. Sadly, I don't see a way back - each new additional feature or product is just bolted on top and adds more complexity. Given the corporate structure of Google, there's zero chance of an org-wide restructuring of the labyrinth.

google's approach to shipping products is puzzling. It's like they don't care if anyone uses them at all

Google isn't a startup, they aren't desperate to impress anyone. I don't even think they consider "AI" to be a product, which is probably correct. These AI enabled features are background processes that ideally integrate into products over time in ways that don't require you to explicitly know they're even there.

Given how widely used Google Docs is, for serious work, disrupting people's workflows is not a good thing. Google has no problem being second, they aren't going to die in the next three months just because people on Twitter say so.

I think what you mean is "Google is complacent, so they don't think they need to make a lot of effort to stay relevant"