In the era of artificial intelligence, it was beyond question that Notion would sooner or later implement machine learning models and natural language processing to further improve the platform.
With the introduction of AI to Notion, you can now leverage your second brain like never before. The Notion AI is much more capable than an isolated AI tool or assistant.
Whether you work with projects, data tables, or content, it doesn’t matter. AI is now a native part of your Notion account and databases to help you get the most out of your past entries and Notion life.
In this Notion AI review, I am going to cover the most important features, use cases, privacy, pros, cons, pricing, and more to find out whether it’s worth the price.
Let’s get started.
Disclosure
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What is Notion AI?
Notion AI is Notion’s native AI feature complementing your Notion workspace. With Notion AI, you can use an array of features to support your project management workflow, improve and augment your writing, and surface information from your second brain, all within the Notion platform.
Notion AI Review
| Best for | Best for individuals, teams, and content creators with a solid presence (and data) in the Notion platform |
| Introduced to Notion | 2023 |
| Quota | Unlimited access (with fair usage) |
| Pricing | $8/mo-$10/mo per user |
| Pros | – Integrates with your Notion workspace – Works within docs and databases – Expanding feature set – Friendly pricing |
| Cons | – Works only on your Notion data – Limited features – Limited language support |
My take:
Notion AI Review
User-friendliness
Although Notion has a bit of a learning curve, it has an intuitive interface.
Many people consider Notion as a project management tool, a note-taking app, a wiki tool, or a second brain. They all are true because Notion is an all-in-one productivity tool.
And that’s what makes Notion AI so powerful. As the AI feature set is built into the platform, you can use it naturally. Just hit Space to bring up the AI assistant and you are ready to go.
What makes Notion so unique is what makes Notion AI so unique, too. It’s the infinite canvas that you can create blocks within blocks through your entire workspace with a powerful drag-and-drop editor. And you can bring up the AI assistant not only in docs but also in databases.
Let’s see how much you can do with Notion AI.
Key features
Notion AI is a powerful tool with a big impact in at least three different domains. You can use the AI feature as if you had three assistants available 24/7.
Writing Assistant
The most obvious use cases are in the realm of content creation. Whether you craft a blog post, social media content, a job description, a press release, or any other type of content, Notion’s AI-powered features can supercharge your writing process.
- Draft content: Craft sales emails, blog posts, outlines, social media posts, poems, and more.
- Improve writing: You can fix spelling mistakes and grammar, plus edit the voice and tone of your manuscript. You can also make your text shorter or longer with a prompt.
- Continue writing: If you hit writer’s block, you can ask the AI to suggest further text for you based on your already laid-out content.
- Summarize text: It’s a useful feature if you don’t have the time to dig through a lengthy text or want to present the key points for your boss.
- Translate: You can translate text without leaving the Notion app, which currently supports 10+ different languages, including German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.
Project Assistant
As Notion is not only a note-taking app, but many people use it for project management and teamwork, there is more than enough room for AI here.
- Write action items from meeting notes: Ask the Notion AI to create action items for your team from meeting notes quickly. It has been one of the most overlooked (and dreadful) tasks of mine.
- Identify bottlenecks & define next steps: Ask the Notion AI about project statuses, workloads, deadlines, and more (Q&A feature now in beta).
- Autofill tables: Use the AI to autofill tables with summaries, translations, and key information, or create custom autofills.
- Create to-do lists: Ask the AI to create a to-do list for you automatically based on your goal.
- Create a meeting agenda: Draft an agenda for your next meeting automatically to save time.
Personal Assistant (Second brain)
My favorite use case is leveraging Notion as a second brain. Over time, I’ve built up a massive library of thoughts, notes, data, and knowledge.
Although Notion databases, mentions, and relations are great tools for organizing information, I find it challenging to stay on top of my workspace.
The Notion AI can help you surface information from different Notion pages and topics and bridge the gap between separate pieces of information.
- Surface information: Ask the AI to surface information from any of your Notion pages and databases.
- Explain: Ask Notion to explain what’s on your page.
- Brainstorm ideas: Get inspiring ideas for your next blog post.
- Supercharge your databases: Add a summary or key info to your existing databases to surface and consolidate your data.
A case study
Let’s take this blog post as a case study.
I research, write, and edit all my blog posts in Notion. My Notion AI review isn’t an exception, either.
Here is my first draft of the verdict of this review.
When I ask Notion AI to fix my grammar, here is what I get back.
When I put my text into Grammarly (which is considered the best writing assistant), I can see that Notion has fixed my major grammatical error, although it didn’t take further steps to improve my manuscript.
However, I can ask the Notion AI to improve my writing…
Finally, I wanted to generate a pros and cons list about my Notion page (this very blog post).
I’m quite happy with the results, although it’s a bit lengthy. What I can do is ask the AI to make the description shorter, change the tone, or improve the text further.
As you can see, Notion is an astonishingly powerful writing buddy, but its superpower lies in the drag-and-drop editor. I can use it throughout my Notion page (manuscript) in real time without switching tools and interrupting my workflow.
Before we head to the pricing, I wanted to give you a hint about privacy.
Privacy
The essence of artificial intelligence and machine learning models is repeated training so that the output can be more powerful, accurate, and natural over time.
And who, dear reader, will be a better test subject than you and your data…
While many people don’t care about their privacy, it’s becoming more important in the era of AI tools.
Fortunately, Notion respects your privacy. They won’t use your data to train the machine learning models unless you opt in. This is good practice, although Notion remains a bit vague on this.
We may use data we collect from your use of Notion AI to improve our models when you (i) voluntarily provide Feedback to us such as by labeling Output with a thumbs up or thumbs down; or (ii) give us your permission.
I couldn’t find an option in the Settings to give or restrict consent. I believe that not labeling my output leaves my data in my own hands.
Pricing
Notion has a quite generous pricing model. It’s free for individual use and only costs $8 per month for your team members on a Plus Plan. Given the uber-impressive feature set, the unique user experience, and the frequent updates, I’ll happily pay more for Notion. (Please don’t tell the Sales Team.)
Notion AI is available as an add-on service on any paid plan for $8 per member (per month) for annual billing. If you prefer to stay on a free plan or pay monthly, Notion AI costs $10.
While the AI add-on can be taxing on your existing Notion plan, it’s still an affordable option compared to third-party AI tools.
It’s now time to end this Notion AI review with a Q&A section and the verdict.
Notion AI Review: FAQ
1. Can I use Notion AI for free?
Yes, you can try Notion AI for free. Although Notion doesn’t have a free trial, you can run a limited number of AI prompts before you commit to a paid plan. You can use up to 20 free AI responses per workspace.
2. Does Notion use my data to train its model?
By default, Notion won’t use your queries and data to train its model. You can opt in to help them train the engine either by labeling the outputs or giving permission. (To be honest, however, things are not so black-and-white for me here.)
3. How does Notion AI compare to ChatGPT?
While ChatGPT is a Q&A platform (or I can say Google on steroids), Notion AI is your second brain on steroids. This is an important distinction because Notion’s AI is built into your Notion workspace with the ability to access, surface, manipulate, and add data to your existing knowledge base, while ChatGPT is a separate entity with a more comprehensive knowledge base from the internet.
4. How does Notion AI compare to other AI writing tools?
Notion AI is part of your Notion workspace so that it can access and interact with your Notion pages. Why is it so important? If you write long-form content in Notion, it’s best to use the native AI features so that you don’t leave Notion at all. While other AI writing tools can be more capable and sophisticated, the biggest advantage of Notion AI is that you can leverage your own Notion workspace and data and centralize your workflow.
Notion AI Review: the verdict
Notion AI is a surprisingly great tool built into your Notion workspace. It works anywhere in your Notion pages, databases, and blocks with a single click.
It has numerous use cases for knowledge work from writing to project management to brainstorming. As I see it, the biggest advantage is that it’s an integral part of your Notion workspace, which makes it even more of a truly all-in-one workspace than ever.
My Notion AI review wouldn’t be honest without mentioning the weaknesses. It’s not for everybody. If you don’t use Notion for content creation or project management, or you don’t have an active presence in your workspace, then Notion AI probably won’t be a game-changer for you.
If you prefer to use Google Docs or other third-party tools to create long-form content, you may want to use a dedicated AI writing tool like Jasper.
Another important consideration is SEO: there is increasing evidence that Google won’t favor AI-written content in the long term. Therefore, it’s important to use AI for brainstorming, outlining, and improving your content over auto-generating long text. This is a perfect fit for Notion AI, which is part of your workspace and thus can leverage your own data and style.
Overall, I find Notion AI a promising tool that excels at cracking your Notion workspace.
What I like and dislike about Notion AI
Like
– Integrates with your Notion workspace
– Works within docs and databases
– Expanding feature set
– Friendly pricing
Dislike
– Works only on your Notion data
– Limited features
– Limited language support
