As AI has reordered Silicon Valley, it has ushered in an adapt-or-die reckoning for fairly a couple of members of tech’s older generations.
That’s true even for 13-year-old Notion, which shot to reputation within the 2010s with a slick note-taking app. Lately, the corporate has discovered itself in a clumsy center floor. By some measures, it stays a tech darling: Its income has surged over that time period, and CEO Ivan Zhao is a star in tech circles for his elevated style in software program design.
By different measures, the Notion story seems much less rosy: Utilization of its cellular app is stalling, based on knowledge from Sensor Tower, a market intelligence agency, and the startup hasn’t raised cash at a time when enterprise capital is free-flowing. And like different software program corporations born within the pre-AI period, Notion faces questions on whether or not alternate options to its merchandise from the brand new AI labs might eat its lunch. To handle these issues, Zhao has thrown himself and his firm into overdrive, reorienting Notion nearly completely round AI.
Notion plans to extend its headcount roughly 30% this 12 months, with the brand new roles largely dedicated to constructing AI merchandise alongside and promoting them to prospects, based on an individual accustomed to the enterprise. The corporate has debuted a slew of AI options for its prospects, most notably one that enables them to make their very own customized brokers for dealing with repetitive duties. It has additionally launched AI that transcribes conferences, automates databases and permits folks to go looking their Slack messages and Google Drives with out leaving Notion’s app.

