Notion AI Features Review: How To Use It

“Notion AI is useful for authoring new content — but it will also summarize long documents, extract key learnings from messy notes, improve your writing style, and much more”

Notion

Notion Ai Features

The Best Ai Assistant You’ll Ever Meet

1. Create Blog Post Outlines

Notion AI can outline entire blog posts from a single-sentence text prompt. It intelligently formats the post with multiple paragraphs, headings, and sub-headings.

I used the Blog Post AI assist option and gave it the following prompt:

“The best ways to improve the aesthetics of your office”

Here’s a look at the result:

If you’re curious, I’ve placed the entire output in the toggle block below.Full prompt output

2. Generate Lists

Notion AI can be used to generate lists of items, which you can then flesh out later on.

I used the Help Me Write option (from the / menu) and gave the following prompt:

“Give me a list of the best Nintendo 64 games.”Prompt output

3. Create Comparison Tables

Notion AI can create actual simple tables in Notion, which you can use to compare and contrast different things.

Here’s the result for the following prompt:

“Create a table comparing the nutritional values of kale, spinach, and lettuce.”

3. Continue Writing (Expand on Existing Text)

If you already have some text on a page, you can hit the / command and choose Continue Writing.

The AI engine will take your manually-entered text into consideration and then try to expand upon it, adding more detail.

You can even do this with the output of a previous AI assist prompt!

I wrote the following text in a new Notion page, then used the “Continue Writing” option:

Let’s talk about open-back headphones vs. closed-back headphones. Which is the right choice for you?

The AI engine then continued writing, adding detail to the topic set by my first sentence.

I then asked the AI to continue writing based on its first set of results:“Continue Writing” output, round 2

As you can see, “continue writing” isn’t perfect; it restated the same point about comfort. However, it also added new points about sound quality and price.

4. Fix Grammar and Spelling Mistakes

Perhaps one of the most immediately practical use cases for Notion AI is fixing spelling and grammar mistakes

To fix these issues, you can select any text on a Notion page, go to the AI Assist menu, and then choose Fix Spelling & Grammar.

It should be noted that this feature can fix certain mistakes, but it doesn’t catch everything.

I used the following (terrible) sentence as input:

I love tomatos, their my favrite food, I eat them evry dy for lnuhc. If u rnt eating tomaots; your missing out.

Notion AI rewrote the sentence as:

I love tomatoes, they’re my favorite food, I eat them every day for lunch. If you’re not eating tomatoes; you’re missing out.

It fixed all of the spelling and most of the glaring grammar issues, such as swapping “their” for “they’re”.

However, it didn’t fix the run-on sentence, nor the misplaced ; in the second sentence.

For comparison, it actually did a better job than Grammarly’s free plan does; however, Grammarly Premium indicates that it can fix some of the issues that Notion AI didn’t catch.

Interestingly, though, Grammarly entirely messes up the final “your”, changing it incorrectly to “you”.

5. Translate Text to Multiple Languages

The contextual AI Assist menu (seen when selecting text or blocks) can also translate text into other languages.

Currently, supported languages include:

• English
• Korean
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Spanish
• Russian
• French
• Portuguese
• German
• Italian
• Dutch
• Indonesian
• Vietnamese

Since I don’t speak anything other than English and JavaScript, I decided to test this by doing translation roundtripping.

I translated a sentence from English to Japanese to Spanish to German, and finally back to English. I wanted to see how much got lost in translation; here the results:

6. Write Code in JavaScript (and Other Languages)

With the rising popularity of Github Copilot, I wanted to see how well Notion AI could write programming code – and whether it would actually work.

Surprisingly, it actually does! However, I’ve found that you currently have to be specific about the structure of the code; it won’t always work if you’re vague about what you want.

To test, I gave Notion AI the following prompt:

In Javascript, write a script that requires axios, then creates an async function with a loop inside that uses axios with a template literal to call the PokeAPI five times in order to get the first five Pokemon. Console log each pokemon’s name, height, and weight. Start by writing “```” and end by writing “```“.

The AI return the following code (I’ll note that I had to ask it to rewrite the code once, as the first time it just wrote require('axios') at the top instead of assigning it to a variable, as it did successfully the second time):

const axios = require('axios');

async function getPokemon() {
  for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++) {
    const { data } = await axios.get(`https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/pokemon/${i}`);
    console.log(`
      Name: ${data.name}
      Height: ${data.height}
      Weight: ${data.weight}
    `);
  }
}

getPokemon();

7. Solve Math Equations

You can also use Notion AI to solve math equations. I’ve found that it does a fine job on simpler problems, but it can sometimes get the answer wrong on more complex ones.

However, I’ve also found that it’s significantly more accurate when you add, “Let’s think in steps” to the prompt.

I gave Notion AI the following prompt:

Give me the volume of a cylinder with height of 20 and radius of 8. Let’s think in steps. Format the output as a list.

Notion AI correctly outputs the answer as 4,021, which we can check with WolframAlpha.

8. Summarize Lengthy Text

This one is extremely useful; Notion AI can summarize long passages of text, pulling out the most salient points.

It can do this for the entire content of a page, but you can also select some blocks or lines of text and summarize only the selection via the AI Assist option in the formatting menu.

In my testing, it’s better to ask Notion AI to summarize smaller sections rather than trying to summarize a lengthy article in one go.

To demonstrate, I asked it to summarize the entirety of this article on my site: How to Organize Your Calendar: The Ultimate Guide – which is around 2,500 words.

When summarizing the entire article, I got a single, vague sentence:

This document discusses the importance of punctuality and offers tips on setting up a calendar system that works for you. It recommends separating events into different “life buckets” and adding events with as little friction as possible.

Next, I asked it to summarize a single sub-section on how to set up smart calendar notifications. That summary was much better:

It’s important to set up notifications for upcoming events, so that you have plenty of time to prepare. Keep in mind that we humans tend to underestimate how long things will take, so it’s a good idea to add a “fudge factor” to your time estimates. Most calendar apps will let you set up multiple notifications for a single event, which can be very useful for important events like birthdays and anniversaries.

I anticipate that this summary tool will get much better over time. For context, Deepgram’s summary feature will automatically generate several summary paragraphs when used on a long piece of text; it splits the text into sections and summarizes each one, rather than trying to summarize the entirety in a single sentence.

9. Answer Questions Directly in Notion

A final example use case for Notion AI is getting answers to quick question directly inside of Notion.

Of course, it’s easy to pop over to Google when you need a quick answer; however, AI tools promise the ability to get that answer without switching the app you’re using or the context your brain is in – which can help you stay focused and be more productive.

However, this use case is definitely one that needs more work from AI companies.

I used the /help me write option with the following prompt:

Who won the 2020 Super Bowl?

The first time I ran it, I got the correct answer:

The Kansas City Chiefs won the 2020 Super Bowl.

Running it again, however, I received this answer:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the 2020 Super Bowl.

The Buccs weren’t even in the 2020 Super Bowl, which featured the Chiefs and the 49ers. However, it was played in Florida, which may be what confused the model.

GPT-3 was a well-documented history of getting answers wrong, so this result isn’t surprising.

Improvements may be coming; Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, recently stated that a new version of GPT-3 will be able to use a web browser to more accurately answer questions.

However, it seems like this version of GPT-3 isn’t currently being used by Notion AI, and I’m not sure how generally available it is as of yet.

It is possible to improve the quality of answers through better prompts, as this article on GPT-3 and Q&A answers states. You can even correct GPT-3 if it returns a wrong answer.

For another example, I asked Notion AI (which is likely using GPT-3):

“Who won the 2018 U.S. Open in the Men’s division? Give me a factual response.”

Even with the presence of “give me a factual response”, it incorrectly answers “Rafael Nadal”.

But when I pass this prompt:

“Who won the 2018 U.S. Open in the Men’s division? Give me a factual response. The answer is not Rafael Nadal.”

…Notion AI then correctly responds with:

The 2018 U.S. Open Men’s singles division was won by Novak Djokovic.

Interestingly, when I tested this a few days ago (shown in the video version of this article above), it got the answer correct without any of this extra correcting.

 “This suggests that most people start by writing their own content, and treat AI as a thought partner and editor,”

Notion

Feature	Description
Blog Post Generator	Notion AI allows users to automate the blog generation process with this feature, allowing you to create a complete blog in one go.
Meeting Agenda	Notion AI allows you to generate an outline for their agenda based on the topic provided. This is a helpful feature for existing Notion users, though the personalization part may make it challenging regarding the relevancy of the results.
Brainstorm Your Ideas	Notion AI generates the perfect words to get your thoughts flowing—whether you’re writing a blog post, an Instagram caption, or an email.
Social Media Post	Social media-based content is always eye candy.
Press release	Notion AI brings PR expertise to the team.
Job description	With Notion AI, you can create the perfect job description.
Sales email	Notion AI enables you to make your brand stand out in an exciting new way. Communicate easily!
Poem	Notion AI users can customize their poems to suit their style and taste using the system’s flexibility.
Pros and Cons List	Notion AI generates a comprehensive list of pros and cons, allowing you to compare alternatives from different perspectives.
Outline	Notion AI allows you to stay in your creativity flow by creating instant structure.
Summarize	The Notion AI lets you quickly summarize your writing in a high-level manner, perfect for outlining content, product specifications, or meeting notes!
Fix spelling & grammar	The spelling and grammar checkers in Notion AI will make writing more enjoyable.

ChatGpt Vs Notion Ai

	Chat Gpt	Notion Ai
Cost	Free –  $20/month	Free
Purpose and Scope:	answering questions, generating summaries, and completing tasks through text generation.	simplify and automate tasks within the platform.
Customization	Customized and fine-tuned for specific use	Pre-defined suggestions and completions based on the user’s input.
Accessibility	logging into an OpenAI account.	Notion subscription
Training Data	Diverse range of data from the internet, including text from websites, books, and more.	Data specific to the Notion platform
User Experience and Interface	Conversational interface	Seamless and integrated experience within Notion.

Notion Ai Pricing

There is a limit to how much you can use Notion AI before you need to pay.

Until April 5th, the company is offering 20 free AI responses to all users. After that, you’ll need to pay $10 per month to continue using Notion AI.

You can get a 20 percent discount if you go with an annual plan. For Plus, Business and Enterprise customers, access to Notion AI will cost $10 per member per month.

What is Notion AI?

Notion AI is an intelligent tool that is designed to make the most of Notion’s existing features.

It uses NLP and machine learning to help users organize their work and personal lives. The tool is designed to learn from the user’s behavior and provide personalized recommendations that help them stay on track and achieve their goals.

How to Use Notion AI (It’s Easy)

Once you have access, you’ll need to enable Notion AI within your Notion workspace. You can do this by going to Settings and Members, navigating to the Plans section (titled Upgrade if you’re on the free plan), and enabling the Notion AI add-on.

When Notion AI is enabled, you’ll have several ways that you can use it in your workspace:

1. Create brand-new pages from AI promps
2. AI Assist options directly in the / command
3. AI Assist access for existing blocs from the block menu
4. AI Assist access from the formatting bar when editing text

Here’s a quick rundown of all these options.

When you create a new page, you’ll have the classic options to create an empty page, start with a template, etc.

You’ll also see a new section: Draft with AI assist.

This section will let you start by giving a text prompt to one of several different AI assist archetypes, including Blog Post, Brainstorm Idea, Pros and Cons List, Creative Story, Meeting Agenda, and more.

On a page with existing content, you can type the / command to bring up all of the same AI assist options, plus three more:

1. Help me write – a very generic prompt template that can do almost anything
2. Continue writing – prompts the AI engine to expand on the text that’s already on the page
3. Summarize – when used here, the AI engine will summarize all the text currently on the page

Once you get a result from your prompt, you’ll be able to either keep, try again, or discard the output.

In my testing, the Try Again option often results in improved output. This makes using Notion AI feel a little bit like fishing; the prompt is the bait and hook, and sometimes you’ll want to cast multiple times in order to get the best catch.

Finally, you can use the AI assist tools on existing Notion blocks or even on precisely-selected text.

In either case, you’ll have three options:

1. Fix spelling and grammar
2. Summarize
3. Translate (to/from more than 10 languages, including English, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and more)

Notion AI will then start analyzing your behavior and data to provide personalized recommendations – and a few laughs along the way. The tool is easy to use and can help you stay organized, productive, and entertained.

• Summarize intended to be used below your text to write a paragraph-long summary.
• Find action items for automatically building a set of tasks from the text that seems to be an action, like “Organize a meeting….”
• Translate opens a list of 14 available languages to translate to.
• Explain builds a short explanation of the text above, which is hard to distinguish from “summarize.”

Below these options, there are other ones –also applied to all the text above the command:

• Improve writing: a replacement for Grammarly?
• Fix spelling & grammar: same as above.
• Make longer: More sparse writing, not necessarily with more information.
• Make shorter: Another version of summarize.
• Use simpler language (obvious –sorry, evident).

Notion Ai Prompt-Writing Tricks

In my testing, I’ve found that there are several tricks you can use to improve Notion AI’s output, or to get your results formatted in a certain way.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of these prompt-writing tricks:

• “Let’s think in steps” will cause the AI engine to work through problems step-by-step and show its work. It can also improve the quality of answers.
• “Start with ‘[something]’ and end with ‘[something]’” will cause the AI engine to explicitly write what you specify at the beginning/end of the result. For example, Start with “```” and end with “```” will cause all of the output to be contained in a code block.
• “Return the results as a list” will specifically tell the AI engine to format the output as a bullet list.
• “Create a table” will make the AI engine generate a simple Notion table.

Conclusion (Keep Laughing – and Productive)

Notion AI is not just a productivity tool – it’s your new Ai partner. With NLP, machine learning, and a sense of humor, Notion AI can help you stay organized, productive, and entertained.

So go ahead, Get Productive – it’s good for you (and your productivity).