News
White Paper
The Future of Leadership Development: AI-Driven Manager Enablement
- NotebookLM can now search the web and suggest sources, instead of only relying on documents you upload.
- New outputs include PowerPoint decks, Excel spreadsheets and PDFs generated directly from your research.
- Availability is currently limited to AI Ultra plan, Workspace's AI Ultra Access and AI Expanded Access customers.
NotebookLM has been Google's AI-powered research tool since 2023. You upload your own documents, and it helps you search across them, pull out key ideas and take notes. Until now, you had to bring all the sources yourself.
That changed today. Google rolled out a significant set of upgrades that push NotebookLM toward something more ambitious: a system that doesn't just answer questions about documents you've collected, but actively goes looking for sources.
The updates include a new underlying AI model, web search built directly into the research workflow and a wider range of output formats, including PowerPoint decks, Excel spreadsheets and PDFs.
Table of Contents
What's New in NotebookLM
The most meaningful change is how NotebookLM handles the front end of research. Start with a rough idea, and the tool will now search the web, find and suggest relevant sources. Every source it recommends is attributed — you can see exactly where each piece of information comes from — and you decide what stays. Nothing gets added without your approval.
The tool can also now take multi-step actions within a single conversation: pulling sources, running analysis and generating outputs, rather than just answering one question at a time.
It runs on Google's Gemini 3.5 model alongside Antigravity, Google's agentic coding tool, an environment that lets the tool write and execute code on your behalf for more complex analysis tasks. Google says each notebook includes access to more than 100 built-in tools to support that work.
On the output side, the tool can now generate PowerPoint slides and Excel spreadsheets directly from your research, as well as PDFs, Word documents and other file formats.
A More Direct Fight With Perplexity
The expanded feature set puts NotebookLM in more direct competition with Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Google's stated advantage is control. Rather than roaming the open web freely, NotebookLM recommends sources for your review, and every output it produces can be traced back to a specific, credited document. That approach came up repeatedly in user responses to the announcement as a meaningful distinction, not a limitation.
Performance Claims
Google says internal testing showed the upgraded system outperformed the previous version in more than 65% of direct comparisons across five evaluation areas — with the strongest results in large-document analysis (69.9%) and web research (78.2%).
These are Google's own evaluations, not independent benchmarks. They show the new version is better than the old one. They don't tell you how it compares to Perplexity or Copilot.
What Users Are Still Waiting For
Not all of the reaction has been positive.
Several users flagged a complaint on social media immediately after the announcement. NotebookLM still has no way to organize notebooks. Everything lives in a single flat list — no folders, no grouping, no separation between projects. For anyone who has built up dozens or hundreds of notebooks over time, the new features land on top of a workflow problem Google hasn't touched and did not address in this update.
Webinar
Jun
17
Engaged, But Not Convinced: What's Eroding Beneath Your Strongest Engagement Numbers
Perceptyx EX Benchmark '26: leadership trust, change confidence and conviction gap truths at large enterprises.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Retention Is a Communication Problem: New Data from 6,000+ Employees
This session gives leaders a clear diagnosis and practical path to treat retention as an infrastructure problem.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Do Learning Programs Really Work? How to Turn Education Into Engagement In Healthcare
See how leaders are using learning programs to build trust with healthcare professionals and create measurable engagement.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Fuel Your Front Line: Workforce Trends Shaping 2026
Get expert insight into the tools and tactics top frontline teams will need in 2026.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Fix the Disconnect Between Projects and Profit
Your margins are hiding in disconnected data. Let's find them.
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
Who Gets Access First
The new features are rolling out today for subscribers to Google's $100-per-month AI Ultra plan, a new, mid-tier option introduced at I/O 2026 three weeks ago. That plan sits below the $200 AI Ultra tier that replaced the original $249.99 plan. Business users on Workspace's AI Ultra Access and AI Expanded Access tiers also get access today, with plans to expand availability over time. The features are not yet available on mobile.
Have a tip to share with our editorial team? Drop us a line: