The Ultimate Guide to Notion AI
& Turning Productivity Software Into Smart Assistants
When it comes to new productivity software, the struggle to
organize your notes, projects, and ideas is always a battle. But what if there
was something built directly into your workspace that could help? Meet Notion
AI, a native artificial intelligence assistant built directly into your
favorite workspace app. Instead of forcing you to constantly lift text from a
chatbot (like ChatGPT) into your personal notes, Notion AI lets you work
smarter and faster by thinking about the context of where you actually are.
Whether you're a developer, looking to organize your
documentation, a digital creator working on your next big project, or a student
trying to keep track of a heavy course load, here's what you need to know about
Notion AI to improve your daily life .
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Overview: Notion AI Is An Assistant,
Editor, And Researcher Living Native Within Notion
Notion AI isn't really a chatbot. It is actually an
assistant, editor, and researcher living within Notion .
Because it is able to read your data and context, it can do
things that no other chatbot could dream of.
Core Functions: Notion
AI Offers More Than Just Q&A
At a glance, Notion AI can be broken down into 3 core
functions: Q&A, Writer/Edit, and Database Automation, which are detailed
below:
Notion AI Q&A:
Ask Your Workspace Anything (And Get Answers)
The most powerful aspect of Notion AI is its Q&A feature
that lets you ask it any question about your workspace. As we all know, as your
Notion workspace grows it can become increasingly difficult to find the exact
information you are looking for. Whether it be a discussion from a past meeting
or specific details written on a certain page, finding the exact words you are
looking for can take time.
However, with Notion AI you can type a question into the
chatbar (or use the slash command) and receive relevant excerpts from pages in
your workspace.
For example, you could ask Notion AI something like:
"What did we decide on for the sitemap layout last month" or
"Show me the feedback on the latest coding project." It will then
pull relevant excerpts from your pages and give you direct links to the pages
it pulled the information from.
The Integrated Writer, Editor, & Translator
Are you stuck on what to write about for your latest blog
post? Does your writing need a more professional tone? Or maybe you just need
help fixing some grammatical errors? Notion AI can help! Simply highlight any
text or press spacebar on a blank line to open the writer sidebar:
Drafting & Brainstorming: Type in a query to get help
come up with a blog post outline, descriptions for SEO optimization, or
technical documentation.
Tone: Change the tone of any text to sound
more casual, technical, or confident.
Spelling & Grammar: Fix any spelling, grammar, and
punctuation issues without the need for extra plugins.
Translation:
Translate any text, or even entire pages, into other languages with ease.
Database Autofill:
AI-Powered Database Entries
Say you are tracking different projects, managing your
content creation calendar, or maintaining an assets database. Odds are you
probably wish there was an easier way to update all of your project's details
in bulk. With Notion AI you can now add AI Properties to your databases that
let you pull in information directly from the page.
For example, say you have a page with a large chunk of text
or a past conversation you want to summarize. Instead of highlighting and
pressing "Enter" on a blank line (which would bring up the writer
sidebar) you can highlight the text and click the "AI" button in the
toolbar. From there you can ask the AI to summarize the text, extract relevant
action items, and fill those properties in specific columns.
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How Notion AI Stacks Up Against The
Competition
Notion AI is much more powerful than other standalone
chatbots like Chat GPT because of the following reasons:
While standalone Large Language Models (LLMs) are extremely
powerful, their biggest limitation is that they are unable to understand your
personal context.
This means you have to waste time lifting information from
one document into another, or give them extra context when asking queries. On
the other hand, Notion AI has inherent knowledge of your documents, projects,
and workspace. Notion AI also doesn't require you to switch tabs between Notion
and standalone chatbots, which causes extra friction in your workflow.
How To Get More Out Of Notion AI:
Pro Tips For Technical & Creative Professionals
To get the absolute most out of Notion AI, avoid using it
like a traditional search engine and instead think about it as an intelligent
code assistant:
1. Use Custom AI Blocks To Create
Smarter Templates
You can now place "AI Blocks" directly into your
Notion templates! Say you have a project template that you use often. You can
place an AI block at the bottom or top of the template with a custom
instruction. For example, you could have a line that says "List out the
top 3 technical risks from the text below." Every time you use the
template the AI will run that command for you.
2. Ask The AI To Help You Comment
Your Code
If you have blocks of code in your Notion workspace (Python,
SQL, HTML, etc.) you can ask the AI to comment that code block or explain what
a specific line does inline.
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3. Paste In Research, Web Clips,
& SEO Data For Summary Generation
If you are trying to come up with ideas for a project you
can paste in relevant web clips, SEO keyword research, technical documentation,
or anything else you find online into a Notion page and ask for a summary in
bullet points. This drastically cuts down on your research time.
Final Thoughts: Notion AI Should
Help You Focus On What Matters Most
Notion AI is not about removing your creative spark, but
instead about removing roadblocks in your daily productivity. By using Notion
AI to automate certain database entries, find relevant information across your
workspace, and act as a personal writing assistant, you can free up more time
and brain power to do what you do best: coding, building, and creating.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is my data used to
train public AIs?
Your data is your data. Notion does not use your workspace
data for training public AIs (e.g., Open AI or Anthropic).
2. Can it write/debug
programming code?
Notion AI can generate, refactor, explain, and write code
blocks (Python, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and SQL) - although it’s not a full-blown
coding editor like Cursor. You can use it to document your coding projects
inside Notion.
3. Does Notion AI
have internet access?
Notion AI does not have access to the internet. It only has
access to the data in your workspace. However, the language model does have
access to world knowledge. For time-sensitive inquiries or questions that
require real-time internet searching, Perplexity AI excels at this specific
task, while Notion AI is unparalleled in answering queries from your own
workspace data.
4. Is Notion AI free
with the free plan?
The free plan includes a limited number of responses to get
you familiar with Notion AI. Once you’ve used up your free responses, you’ll
need to subscribe to one of the Pro plans, typically paying every month on a
per-member basis.
5. Can it search
files from Google Drive or Slack connected to Notion?
Yes, if you’ve connected your Google Drive, Slack, or GitHub
accounts using the latest Notion tools. Then, by using the new Notion AI
Q&A search, it can scour connected files for relevant information to help
answer your questions.
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