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Google’s research tool NotebookLM made waves recently for a new feature that lets users generate what sounds a lot like podcasts. But while the company has been adding new features, it’s also seeing more and more use cases in the enterprise arena.
NotebookLM lets users upload PDFs, websites, Google Docs, Google Slides and paste text into a notebook keeping information in one place. People can also ask Gemini questions about the documents inside the notebook. First launched in July 2023 and generally available in the U.S. since Dec. 2023, NotebookLM has slowly expanded the kinds of files it can read.
However, one use case that has seen an uptick is through corporate teams sharing research and information on NotebookLM.
Raiza Martin, product manager at Google handling NotebookLM, told VentureBeat that they’re seeing corporate teams take advantage of the product’s organizational capabilities that let people find the information they need in one place.
“We saw students using it to accelerate their learning and understanding and analysis, but we also know that the same thing students are doing is the exact same things that professionals are trying to do,” Martin said, adding that over months, Google has seen “an equal, if not larger amount of professionals using NotebookLM.”
Make a podcast to explain your research
Since launching NotebookLM, Google has slowly added new capabilities to the platform. The newest update allows users to generate audio explaining information in the notebook, with two speakers discussing the topic.
“The conversation style is the first one that we picked because we thought it was novel, and in our early test, it was very engaging. The double speaker dynamic helped people sort of latch on to the content in a totally different way than a single speaker,” Martin said.
Google observed users and teams have used NotebookLM to bring together research and analysis, even some other information employees may need to know. One way enterprises can use NotebookLM is as a shortcut to store data that ultimately makes its way to retrieval augmented generative (RAG) search queries. Martin said NotebookLM itself is a RAG tool that benefits from Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro.
I got to use the audio generation feature early and was able to point it to one of my notebooks. I had given NotebookLM several documents about global AI regulations, such as the text of the European Union’s AI Act. The audio it generated summarized the act, but since the other file in the same notebook was an analytical blog post, the discussion took sides. To me, it sounded a lot like the tech-related podcasts I regularly listen to, without the personal banter between hosts.
Some users have begun posting how they’ve used the audio feature, including explaining code bases.
It can be used to summarize blog posts as well.
“This is the first of many formats, but in the future, we’ll give you knobs so you can change the number of speakers, the types of voices used and the content altogether,” said Martin.
Different use cases for NotebookLM
Part of the growth of NotebookLM has been users exploring different use cases for it, and Martin said it means it’s usually up to users to figure out how to make it work for them. Some use cases have been very interesting, including a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master using it to keep track of a campaign.
“I think there’s still a lot of education in terms of connecting users on how to use the tool and why this type of tool might be valuable, but I would say that I’m really encouraged by the rate at which people are seeing that value and have used NotebookLM,” Martin said.
Martin said NotebookLM will remain, for now, a standalone tool. However, some of the learnings from the tool could make their way to other Google productivity platforms.