Feature
Notion's last funding round was a $275 million Series C in 2021, giving it a $10 billion valuation. Not too shabby for a five-year-old company seeking to gain traction in the enterprise via word of mouth.
Because unlike most vendors, Notion isn't targeting CIOs. Rather, it's looking at employees to bring its tools into their workplaces and then advocate for them. Notion COO Akshay Kothari called them 'Notion Champions' in an interview with Protocol last year. But it's more commonly known as shadow IT.
An All-in-One Collaboration Offering
Chris Prucha, Ivan Zhao, Jessica Lam, Simon Last and Toby Schachman founded Notion in 2016 with a goal to bring workplace tools into the modern era. The company didn't advertise until August 2022, rather relying on early adopters to "start a movement."
Notion's AI Lead Linus Lee put this movement into context: "We have successfully fostered a strong and dedicated community of individual users, who range from freelancers to students, that have come to rely on Notion to manage and streamline their daily tasks," he told Reworked. "Given the positive experiences of these individual users, they are highly likely to introduce Notion to their professional environments. In addition, Notion also directly targets workplaces, particularly EPD (engineering, product, design/data) teams at mid-market and enterprise-level companies, with features designed to meet their unique needs.”
At the time of Notion's last funding round, collaboration tools were still riding the wave of remote and hybrid work spurred on by COVID-19. The company was a good fit for this style of working. Its collaboration platform integrates kanban boards, tasks, wikis and databases, creating an all-in-one workspace for notetaking, knowledge and data management, as well as project and task management.
Even in a world where organizations are re-examining remote and hybrid work models, the role and value of a relatively cheap — Notion has four pricing models ranging from Free to Enterprise — and easy to use collaboration platform is clear. And like the other vendors in the marketplace, Notion has started introducing AI capabilities.
Notion's AI Updates
Notion first announced its AI-based writing assistant in November 2022, and launched it on Feb. 22, 2023 with full access. Unlike other generative AI offerings, Notion AI doesn't have a waitlist or limited access restriction and is available on the web, through desktop app on Windows and Mac, and the mobile app on iOS and Android.
Lee explained why they felt this was a necessary next move. “We were excited to witness the development of early large language models like GPT-3. This led Notion to start prototyping and testing generative AI features in November 2022, a few months before the launch of ChatGPT,” he said.
A large part of Notion's user base uses the tool for writing documents and taking notes, so integrating language models into Notion seemed like a natural fit, he continued. As the technology has evolved, two other areas have emerged where large language models can enhance collaboration platforms, namely:
1. Customizing Base Models
Throughout 2023, the industry's focus has expanded beyond simply training and using larger and more powerful base models. The trend now is towards customizing these base models for specific tasks and domains, Lee said.
While general interfaces and models like the ones used in ChatGPT are helpful, their value really kicks in when they are trained on the domain knowledge relevant to a person's work. Since many people use Notion as their workspace, it contains substantial knowledge and context about their work and collaboration with their teams.
2. Ubiquitous Toolmaking
Striking a balance between deep customization and user-friendly simplicity presents both a challenge and opportunity. With Large Language Models, computers can interpret natural language instructions as effectively as they can with buttons and sliders.
“We are excited about the possibilities of creating new interfaces that make Notion easier to use. Conversational interfaces are just the beginning, and we believe there is much more to be explored and developed in this area,” Lee said.
On Nov. 14, the company introduced the beta of its latest AI feature, Q&A. It's a simple interface for users to search through all of the information they have stored in the Notion workspace. Beyond just locating documents or meeting notes, Q&A collates information in response to queries to fully answer a question while also linking to the sources. The feature recognizes pre-set permissions to only provide information the user has access to.
Notion's Platform
The balance between ease of use and flexibility has been one of the driving forces behind Notion's development. Notion started as a platform for everyday use cases, such as organizing ideas or managing a team’s knowledge base.
At the same time, the aim was to adapt and accommodate the needs of individuals or teams as their work evolves over time. Often, Lee said, making a tool more intuitive involves adding constraints, but having only one way to do things makes a tool easier to learn.
To do this, the company assembled core elements — such as the "Blocks" system for documents, structured databases for organizing information, "prompts" for Notion AI — as a starting point for individuals and teams to use and customize as needed.
All of this allows users to pull all their structured information (projects, tasks, meetings) and unstructured information (notes, brainstorming docs) into one place, Lee said, with the goal of improving collaboration effectiveness as well as giving the Notion AI models access to a vast amount of knowledge, so as to better adapt to user needs.
Notion's Expansion
The strategy appears to be working. At the beginning of 2020, he said, the company had four million users. Today, he claims it has grown to over 20 million users worldwide, with hundreds of thousands of teams using the platform to streamline their work and increase productivity.
It's worth noting here that 80% of Notion users are located outside of the United States, as are 70% of businesses using Notion. Furthermore, 80% of Notion's business comes from outside the United States. This demonstrates the widespread adoption we are seeing on a global scale.
Asked about Notion COO Akshay Kothari’s comments about building the next Microsoft, he explained that the company is currently focused on making its own way and not copying another company.
“We believe that there is still ample opportunity for growth and innovation,” he said. “By offering a versatile and customizable platform that caters to a wide range of use cases, we aim to carve out our own space and provide users with a differentiated alternative to existing collaboration tools.”
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
AI in Customer Service: Faster Resolutions, Happier Customers
Don’t let rising demand burn out your team. See how to build a smarter, more resilient support org.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Insights to Action Rethinking the Contact Center for Real Business Impact
Join our exclusive webinar to hear CX executives share their innovative strategies for transforming service delivery.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Accelerating Healthcare Ops with AI
Sign up to see how your peers are putting AI to work — and making it stick.
Watch Now
Notion is holding its own in a very tight market. Rather than cutting back, it has pushed forward in a move to expand. For example, Notion bought Cron in 2022, a calendar app for professionals and teams who are struggling to organize time and productivity. Another 2022 buy was Flowdash, a work tracking software platform.
The focus for most of the coming year will be on further development of Notion AI, Lee said. Notion AI is still in the early stages as the company watches the wider AI community to see what happens as LLMs increase their reach and capabilities in the workplace.
The company is also prioritizing speed and usability in the coming months, as well as fixing bugs and improving the overall experiences as users workspaces grow larger and more intricate. Whether all of this helps it continue to land new grassroots customers is a question we'll be watching in the year to come.