Notion unveils AI tools to boost work and email

Notion has expanded and updated its AI-powered workplace productivity suite with the arrival of its Notion AI for Work toolkit, saying the new features might actually help people do their work.

“Despite being three years into the new era of AI, adopting it into daily work remains a challenge as the costs and complexity of new tools quickly add up and many businesses struggle to integrate AI into existing tools,” the company said in a statement.

That may feel like a dig at the big productivity players, with Microsoft and Google both embedding AI features into their software to a rather muted response from users. While Microsoft’s own research finds a productivity boost from AI, users have reported disappointment with capabilities. One notable Australian government trial reported the AI tools were less useful than hoped, while a research study suggests mixed experiences.

It’s into that space that Notion – founded back in 2013 to create collaboration tools – is launching Notion AI for Work, which is an expanded set of AI tools “to help teams achieve more with less.”

Notion AI for Work tools and features

One of the key updates includes Enterprise Search, letting users find what they’re looking for across all work apps. Examples include Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Gmail, Box, Salesforce, Zendesk and Linear. It can also hunt through PDFs and databases.

Notion unveiled two features still in beta: AI Meeting Notes and Research Mode.

“AI Meeting Notes captures and summarises meeting notes automatically, no bots needed,” the company explains. “And all your notes live in Notion, so you never lose an idea or decision, and everything is searchable with AI.”

Notion said Research Mode is like a “personal analyst”, pulling in company sources as well as the wider web to create detailed reports. “Create thorough project updates and custom reports in minutes with one prompt,” the company claims.

Notion AI for Work price and availability

Subscribers can make use of a range of top AI models, letting you choose the right one for the task, the company noted.

Notion also announced plans to streamline its pricing, including the AI tools into all Business and Enterprise plans, noting that free users can try the tools for free.

The free version is for “individuals to organise personal projects and life” and includes the collaborative workspace tool, integration with Slack, GitHub and more, basic page analytics, Notion Calendar and Mail, and more.

The Plus tier adds features designed for small teams and professionals. In the UK, it costs £8.50 per seat/month ($10/€10/AU$15 in the US, EU and Australia respectively). The Business suite is £12.50 a month ($15/€15/AU$23) and includes the AI tools.

Prices for the Enterprise version requires a chat with sales, and includes advanced security, compliance and analytics tools.

Notion also added that it is setting up local data residency for EU customers, starting with storage in Germany. That means Enterprise customers can hold their data in the US or the EU, as required.

Fixing email with AI

Email is broken. Can AI fix it? That’s what Notion is aiming to do with Notion Mail, released last month, which can integrate with Gmail and other providers to organise your inbox, schedule meetings and even draft emails.

For everyone aside from inbox-zero extremists, email accounts overflow with unnecessary messages, many that sit unread and serve no purpose but to add to the count of unopened mails. And filtering tools and search aren’t keeping up with the mess.

So it’s perhaps no wonder that we’ve been talking about the death of email for ages – back in 2009 the “reign” of email was deemed over by the Wall Street Journal. While you may spend more time in Teams or Slack than your inbox, email remains unavoidable.

Handily, a digital box of natural language that’s all mixed up seems like the right application for large language models. Notion Mail can label and sort email based on personalised settings, rather than only using set categories, and integrates with Calendar to “help you end the back-and-forth”. It also promises to help draft replies based on information from your Notion documents.

Notion Mail is now available, with a free limited trial. So far, it’s only compatible with Gmail and in English, with further support for other platforms and languages planned soon.

More articles about AI is making work better, maybe

• AI at work: employees want a say in how AI is used
• Why digital labour will either set us free or make us even busier
• LinkedIn says the pace of change at work is speeding up