- Understanding the capabilities and limitations of Notion AI - Designing intuitive interactions with AI tools - Enhancing productivity through automation and organization
Notion AI is a powerful tool that enhances productivity by automating tasks and organizing thoughts, but it requires careful design and context to be effective. Users should treat it like a smart but literal assistant, ensuring they understand its limitations to avoid overwhelm and inefficiency. Practical applications include searching databases, drafting content, and summarizing information.
What is Notion AI?
Before we talk about Notion AI, let’s establish some basics.
At first, one might think, Notion AI is an agentic robot, a chatbot, or something that involved prompting or GenAI.
But to say it is all this, is an understatement or to misunderstand the proper use of AI tools.
Firstly, we look at the possibilities of AI. AI is a smart intelligence, capable of learning and doing work at fast speeds. But for it to be capable, it needs to be given to ability to execute on behalf and it also needs context.
A post I read about AI said that you need to treat it as an Autistic PHD student. It is super smart but it is also very literal and limited by it’s designer. Who is this designer? You.
Building with an AI isn't just about the typing a question and having answers, it's about designing interactions that feel natural and intuitive. For AI to be truly effective, it needs boundaries, context, and a clear understanding of what it can and cannot do.
Despite these limitations, when implemented well, AI tools like Notion AI can significantly enhance productivity by automating repetitive tasks, generating content drafts, and helping users organize their thoughts more effectively.
When building tools with AI, we must be fully aware that is doesn’t always give the right answers and solutions.
Using the tools inefficiently will only cause
- more overwhelm
- hurt your productivity
- get lost and feeling cheated by AI.
It doesn’t automatically replace you, or suddenly by magic make you more effective. That’s not how it works.
For that very reason, I took the liberty to test Notion AI so that it works with my workflows
Some of the ways I use Notion AI
- Searching for information across my Notion databases
- Structure and draft online for my posts.
- Summarize long texts of information