Why Notebook LM Is The Best AI Research Tool Right Now

Google just made Notebook LM even more powerful. And if you've never used it

powerful. And if you've never used it before, here's exactly when it beats every other AI tool. First, you have low tolerance for hallucinations and madeup information. Second, your knowledge is

information. Second, your knowledge is scattered across different file formats like documents, slides, YouTube videos, audio files all over the place. And

third, you want a fast, reliable way to not just organize that chaos, but actually master it in record time. In

this video, I'll show you how to use Notebook LM to accelerate your learning on any subject, including generating interactive podcasts that teach you, quizzes that test you, and videos that explain your research back to you. Plus,

I'll show you new features, hidden tricks, and real world use cases that most people never discover. And by the end, you'll be a Notebook LM pro. So,

let's go.

All right, let me show you how this works. So when you first open notebookm,

works. So when you first open notebookm, you're going to see your personal library of notebooks right here. And

each notebook is a dedicated space for a project or topic. So let's create one right now. I'm going to click on create

right now. I'm going to click on create new. And then this brings us to add

new. And then this brings us to add sources. So this is where we're actually

sources. So this is where we're actually going to build our knowledge base. So we

can upload a lot of different file formats like PDFs, text, YouTube videos, website URLs, audio files, etc. But before we start adding our sources, let me show you the layout of Notebook LM

for those who've never used it before.

Now on the left side we have our sources. So this is your library of

sources. So this is your library of everything that you're analyzing. Now in

the middle is the chat area. So this is where you're going to ask your questions and actually interact with all the information sources that you uploaded.

And on the right this is the studio part. So this is where you're going to

part. So this is where you're going to create outputs like podcasts, videos, quizzes, flashcards, and more. All

right. So for our first example, let's say you've been invited to give a keynote speech on AI's impact on jobs over the next 5 years. It's a hot topic and everyone wants to know if AI will take their job or create new

opportunities. We need to master the

opportunities. We need to master the research fast. So, we're going to create

research fast. So, we're going to create a new notebook about AI and jobs. Now,

when notebookm first came out, you'd have to manually hunt down every report, article, and expert talk. But the

discover sources feature right here changed all of that. Instead of spending hours searching for sources yourself, you simply tell notebook what you're looking for by giving it a prompt and it will help you find sources. Okay, so let

me search for find credible sources on how AI is transforming different industries and job roles. And because we want these to come from the internet and not Google Drive, I'm just going to make sure that web is selected. And we'll

click submit. And look at this. It's

actually finding reports from PWC, LinkedIn, the Daily Herald, the Boston Consulting Group, Thomas Rutters, and even Reddit. Now, because I want really

even Reddit. Now, because I want really credible sources here, I'm going to remove Reddit, but leave the rest. And

I'm going to click import to add these sources to the notebook. Now, just a pro tip that some URLs may not be able to be added because they're behind a payw wall. So, in these situations, you can

wall. So, in these situations, you can try going directly to the site and copying the text and then adding that as a text source. All right, let's give it another prompt to add some different types of sources here. I'm going to type

in find credible sources on skills and roles growing fastest as AI enters the workplace. All right, and after a couple

workplace. All right, and after a couple of seconds, we've got data from the World Economic Forum, from Forbes, PWC, and other data-driven articles. This is

gold for building our speech. So, let's

add these as well. Now, these last two sources here are behind payw walls. And

I'm not able to add the Forbes one, but I'm going to go ahead and just copy and paste the text from the other blog as a text file and add that as a source and just remove those two URLs that didn't

work. Now, let's add even more sources.

work. Now, let's add even more sources.

We're not just limited to web articles here. Watch how fast we can build a

here. Watch how fast we can build a comprehensive library. I'm going to head

comprehensive library. I'm going to head over to YouTube and grab the URLs for three expert talks on AI and impact on jobs. And then I'm going to click on the

jobs. And then I'm going to click on the plus add button at the top and copy the URL right in there. Select YouTube

videos and then just paste in the URL right into that box. And I'm going to do the same thing again for the other two YouTube videos. Another amazing new

YouTube videos. Another amazing new feature is that you can also connect your Google Drive, which I've done here.

You can now even upload your Google Sheets documents as well if you need to review your spreadsheets, which is awesome. All right, so I'm adding

awesome. All right, so I'm adding another PDF document right from my Google Drive. All right, great. So we

Google Drive. All right, great. So we

have 22 sources loaded, documents, videos, and websites all in one place.

And notebookm can handle this because it has a massive context window. It can

handle up to 50 sources and 25 million words in total in each notebook. Most AI

tools including Chat GBT, Claude, and even Gemini would choke on this, but Notebook LM is purpose-built for research at scale. Now, this workflow, combining different high-quality sources

into one place, is the exact method that I use when I need to do professional level market research. But the real goal isn't just having a one-off project, right? It's about having a repeatable

right? It's about having a repeatable research system that delivers deep insights every single time. And for

that, I suggest you take a look at the free marketer's guide to Google Gemini and Notebook LM from HubSpot. This guide

gives you the step-by-step workflow to do 10 hours of research in just 20 minutes. It's packed with 11 practical

minutes. It's packed with 11 practical marketing applications like building a full SEO content strategy and conducting customer research and shows you exactly how to stack Gemini and Notebook LM

together to find insights that other people miss. My favorite part is the

people miss. My favorite part is the detailed breakdown for building a competitive intelligence program. It

shows you exactly how to turn raw data into a strategic advantage. So download

this guide using the link in the description and thanks to HubSpot for sponsoring this video. All right, so we've got our massive research library built for our AI's impact on jobs keynote. Now, we're going to put it to

keynote. Now, we're going to put it to work. Let me show you how powerful it is

work. Let me show you how powerful it is when you start to interact with it using the chat. Let's ask based on all my

the chat. Let's ask based on all my sources, what are the three most important skills workers should develop to stay relevant as AI transforms their industry. Give me concrete

industry. Give me concrete researchbacked recommendations that I can close my keynote with. And look at this answer. Lots of really good

this answer. Lots of really good information here. And see these numbers

information here. And see these numbers right here, these small numbers, these are the citations. So, if you click on any of these numbers, it's going to show you the exact source and the specific paragraph that it pulled it from. It's

proving its work. Now, something that people used to miss a lot was actually clicking on this save to note button at the bottom here. Previously, Notebookm

didn't save the output from your chat history unless you clicked that button.

However, one of the newest upgrades is now that this automatically saves. So,

when you leave the notebook and come back in, your chat history will still be there. Now, this is gradually being

there. Now, this is gradually being rolled out to people, so I'm not sure if everyone has this autosave feature yet.

So, I would still click on that save to note button when you're happy with the output. Now, I also wanted to show you a

output. Now, I also wanted to show you a new feature that came out as I was recording this video, and that's the new built-in deep research feature, which makes Notebook LM even more useful. So,

to use this new feature, you're going to go to the main screen, and then you're going to see on the left hand side under sources, there's going to be a prompt box, and underneath that, we can select the type of research that we want.

either fast research, which will reference less sources but give you a quicker response, or deep research, so I'm actually going to select deep research. Now, just a quick FYI that

research. Now, just a quick FYI that fast research can use either web searches or your Google Drive as a source for where the research is coming from, but deep research can only use the web, which makes sense. So to complement

the research that we already have here about AI's impact on work and skills, I'm going to type in identify emerging risks, gaps, or blind spots in current thinking about AIdriven job

transformation, especially in non- tech industries. So now I'm going to click on

industries. So now I'm going to click on this arrow to start the deep research.

And just like any other deep research, it does take some time to run. So maybe

10 minutes or even more sometimes depending on what type of research that you're doing. But once we're completed,

you're doing. But once we're completed, here's what the research actually looks like. You can see it's a very detailed

like. You can see it's a very detailed academic style report on exactly what I asked it to look into. And here's the 31 sources that it used that are actually cited in the report. We can now click on

which sources we want to import and even decide whether we want to import the deep research report itself as a source document. So, I'm going to go ahead and

document. So, I'm going to go ahead and click on a bunch of these sources and just make sure that the deep research box is ticked and I'm going to click on import. And now you can see that all of

import. And now you can see that all of these additional sources and the deep research report have now been added.

Okay, so we covered the chat basics, but here's where notebookm becomes something completely different. You can actually

completely different. You can actually configure the chat feature defining your conversational goal. You can have it be

conversational goal. You can have it be a learning guide. You can control the response length as well. And you can even customize it to act as your own AI expert in whichever area you choose. Let

me show you with a completely different use case, employee onboarding. Let's say

you're growing your team, but you don't have time to answer the same onboarding questions over and over again. You can

upload your company policies and create an AI onboarding assistant that does that for you. Let me show you how to do this. So, I'm going to create a new

this. So, I'm going to create a new notebook right here. And now I'm going to upload the knowledge that it should reference. an employee handbook, an IT

reference. an employee handbook, an IT setup guide, and a benefits overview.

And these become its expertise. Then I'm

going to click on the chat configuration right at the top in the middle. And then

you're going to see a bunch of different options, including custom. So we're

going to click on custom settings. And

this is where we're going to create what's called a system prompt, instructions for how the AI should behave. And here's what I'm telling it.

behave. And here's what I'm telling it.

You are a friendly onboarding specialist. Your role is to answer

specialist. Your role is to answer questions from new employees based on only the official company documents in this notebook. format responses as

this notebook. format responses as helpful conversational answers. If you

can't find the answer in the sources, direct new hires to their managers, and always stay friendly and encouraging.

See, I'm defining its persona, its knowledge, boundaries, and its behavior.

All right, let's test it with a real new hire question. Hi, I'm trying to set up

hire question. Hi, I'm trying to set up my benefits. Where do I find the link to

my benefits. Where do I find the link to the health insurance portal? And what's

the company policy on 401k matching? And

look at that, a perfect, accurate, cited answer in seconds. Think about how much time this would save you as a manager or a business owner. And here's the killer feature. You can share this entire

feature. You can share this entire notebook with your new staff. You can

also control the type of access they have, whether it's viewing access only or editing access. Just an FYI that you'll need to upgrade to the Notebook LM Plus plan to unlock some of those enhanced controls on the sharing. Now,

you could do this for sales training, product knowledge, or anything you or your team needs to master. All right,

let's jump back into our AI and jobs keynote research and I'll show you some other amazing features. Okay, so we've got our 22 sources and we're chatting with them. But what if you need to see

with them. But what if you need to see the big picture? How everything

connects. Just click on the mind map right here and watch what happens in seconds. Notebook has organized our AI

seconds. Notebook has organized our AI and jobs research into a visual structure. We've got our main themes

structure. We've got our main themes here like emerging AI job roles, job market and employment trends, essential future proof skills and AI transformation strategy with related

subtopics branching out from that. And

then you can click on any topic to expand it. So if we click on this job

expand it. So if we click on this job market and employment trends, it shows all the related concepts from our sources. This is so much easier than

sources. This is so much easier than scrolling through 20 articles trying to remember what connected to what. It's

like having an instant research map. Now

here's the feature that went viral when it first came out. Notebookm can turn all your sources into an audio overview, but what's relatively recent is that you can now generate multiple podcasts within one notebook. You used to be

limited to generating one at a time.

Also, there's so many more customizations that you can make now to the audio overviews, which I'll show you. So, if I click on the audio

you. So, if I click on the audio overview, you can select deep dive option, which is the podcast episode format, or you can now choose a bite-sized overview to help you grasp the concepts faster. They have a

critique option to have an expert review your sources, or you can select the debate option for a conversation between two people with different perspectives on your topic. So, I'm going to select the deep dive option, and I'll leave the

length as the default. And there's also multiple language options as well, right here in the drop- down menu. And down

here in this text box, we can choose what we actually want the host to focus on during the podcast. So, I'm going to type in AI's impact on the future of work. So, this takes a couple of minutes

work. So, this takes a couple of minutes to generate and it's going to go through all our sources and create a natural dialogue between two people. But what's

awesome about this is that you can actually interact with it and become part of the conversation. You can ask it questions or to tell you more about a specific part of the research which I'll show you in a moment. All right, so I'm going to click on the interactive button

and then I'll play a quick snippet of the podcast.

>> Okay, let's unpack this. The future of work, it feels like one giant question mark right now, doesn't it? And it's all centered really on AI. Mhm.

>> We've all seen the headlines, you know, are the robots taking our jobs? There's,

oh, hey, our listener wants to join in.

What's up?

>> Hey, what specific skills should someone in marketing focus on to work with AI instead of being replaced by it?

>> That is a brilliant way to frame the challenge.

>> It really is focusing on augmentation, not replacement.

>> And we actually have some really specific data on that, especially in marketing.

>> Okay, let's unpack this for you right now.

>> Historically, marketing job, >> it's pulling from the exact sources I need in real time. This is like having two expert tutors that have read everything you've read and you can steer the conversation. I absolutely love this

the conversation. I absolutely love this feature. Okay, this next feature is one

feature. Okay, this next feature is one of their newest big additions and it's honestly fantastic. It's a full video

honestly fantastic. It's a full video presentation with slides and voice over generated in minutes. And one of the coolest things about it is all the customizations that you can do which I'll show you now. Okay, let's click on

the video overview. And you can see we can pick from the explainer format and the brief format. And again, we can also select different languages as well, which is very handy if you work for with international teams. And we can pick

from different visual themes from Nano Banana, like anime, watercolors, retrop paint, etc. So, I'm going to click on retrop paint. And again, we can

retrop paint. And again, we can customize what the host focuses on as well. So, I'm going to just leave it

well. So, I'm going to just leave it blank and just let it surprise me. And

after a few minutes, here's what it generated. Let me play it for you. All

generated. Let me play it for you. All

right, let's dive into a question that, let's be honest, is on pretty much everyone's mind. How is artificial

everyone's mind. How is artificial intelligence really changing the world of work? And I'm not just talking about

of work? And I'm not just talking about cool new gadgets. We're talking about a fundamental reshuffleling of the entire job market. And we're going to break

job market. And we're going to break down exactly what that means for your career. So, here it is, the big one. Is

career. So, here it is, the big one. Is

AI coming for your job? I mean, it's an unsettling thought, right? Is some

algorithm about to make everything you do obsolete? To get a real answer, we

do obsolete? To get a real answer, we have to push past the headlines and look at what the data is actually telling us.

>> I think this is super powerful. A fully

localized presentation, slides, voice over, everything in just a few minutes.

This is literally explaining all your source information back to you in a really nice visual way. And for this example, which is a keynote speech that we're preparing for, this gives us a really good idea of how we could present

the information for our talk. Now, what

if you're studying for a certification, a course, or training your team? You

need to test understanding. Another

relatively new feature are the quizzes and flashcards that you can actually generate, which can really help to solidify your knowledge on any topic.

So, I'm going to click on quiz, which instantly generates multiple choice questions based on all your sources. So,

we can customize the number of questions, the level of difficulty, easy, medium, or hard, and we can select the topic of the quiz right here at the bottom. So, when we generate our quiz on

bottom. So, when we generate our quiz on AI and jobs, here's what it looks like.

We can answer the multiple choice questions to practice and it will reveal the correct answer. We can also create some flashcards as well and you can again customize them the same way as you can the quizzes. And here's what the

flash cards look like. Super useful for mastering any topic. Another really cool thing that's kind of hidden that I can't forget to mention are the different reports that you can generate, which I believe is a recent upgrade. Now, when I

click on the reports button right here, you can now create, you could see study guides, blog posts, white papers, strategic analysis, tons of different things here depending on what you need, which is really awesome and powerful in

terms of timesaving. Now, let me show you what the blog post looks like. There

you go. You have an initial draft now that you can iterate on and actually customize and make your own. All right,

you've seen the features, but I think the real power here are the endless use cases and ways that you could use this to actually level up your career or your life in general. Let me show you three real world ways that people are using

this, including one that's going to blow your mind. Use case number one is an

your mind. Use case number one is an e-commerce brand audit. Let's say we're running an e-commerce store selling premium workout leggings. We've been

marketing our leggings as proprietary high-tech sweat wicking fabric, but sales are flat. We can use Notebook LM to help us uncover what might be going wrong with our business. We can create a

notebook called FitPro wellness product positioning. We'll upload our product

positioning. We'll upload our product descriptions from our website. And we'll

upload 50 customer reviews and our ad campaign scripts. And now using the chat

campaign scripts. And now using the chat function, we can ask it to analyze all my five-star customer reviews. What's

the single most praised feature about my leggings? And now it says, after

leggings? And now it says, after analyzing your reviews, the overwhelming theme is not the sweat wicking fabric.

It's actually the fit and comfort, specifically the high waistband that doesn't roll down during workouts. Now,

here's why this is so powerful. Because

Notebook LM is grounded in only the sources that we gave it, it's less likely to hallucinate. This is real data-driven insight that we can use to pivot our entire marketing strategy.

That's super valuable insight from customer data. We were selling tech

customer data. We were selling tech fabric, but our customers were desperate for a confidence boosting fit. Now, what

if you're an educator building courses?

Watch this. Let's say you're an educator building a course about high stakes negotiation. You can create a notebook

negotiation. You can create a notebook called negotiation course materials and then you could upload your video lesson transcripts, a PDF summary of the book called Never Split the Difference, which

is a negotiation book, and three case study examples. Then you can click on

study examples. Then you can click on quiz and customize the quiz to your liking for your students, even creating different languages for them. And you

could also create flashcards for your course, too. You could even create a

course, too. You could even create a video overview based on your materials or even a study guide right under here under the reports section for your students. And now you've just automated

students. And now you've just automated hours of curriculum development study materials citing the exact lessons that they came from. Now, here's the one that's going to blow your mind. Okay,

this one is super powerful. It's a tough competitive job market right now. And

this is the ultimate tool to help you look like the smartest person in the room. Let's say you're interviewing for

room. Let's say you're interviewing for a senior marketing manager role at a company called Techflow and you need to prepare for the interview fast. We can

create a new notebook called senior manager interview and then we can upload the official job description PDF and the company's annual marketing report and add some text from their about us

section from their website. We can add a bunch of their recent blog posts and then our own personal resume as a source. And then we can ask, generate 15

source. And then we can ask, generate 15 interview questions that this company is likely to ask me with suggested answers based on my background and their marketing strategy. Look at this list of

marketing strategy. Look at this list of questions. Not only do we have the

questions. Not only do we have the questions, but we also have suggested answers based on the sources that we gave it. But here's what takes this to a

gave it. But here's what takes this to a whole new level. We can click on the audio overview button and generate a podcast episode with the host having a conversation on what they might ask in the interview and what we should say to

best prepare ourselves. You could

interrupt the podcast episode with the question that you specifically have and have the host help you answer the question. This is interview prep on

question. This is interview prep on steroids. And the beauty of this is that

steroids. And the beauty of this is that you can use the same approach to prepare for any important meeting. You could

upload details from a prospect's website, their LinkedIn profile, whatever you need. There is literally no excuse for not being prepared for meetings anymore. All right, before we

meetings anymore. All right, before we wrap up, here are three tips to get the most out of Notebook LM. Tip number one is to create separate notebooks for each project. Don't try to dump everything

project. Don't try to dump everything into one notebook. It keeps everything organized and fast to find. And tip

number two is to click on the save to note button. I know that there's an

note button. I know that there's an autosave feature coming, but until that gets rolled out to everyone, just to avoid losing valuable information, just remember to click that button. And tip

number three is to customize your audio and video overviews. This will make sure that they're really tailored towards your needs and help you get the most out of them. So, now you understand why

of them. So, now you understand why Notebook LM is one of my favorite AI tools out there. If you found this video helpful, then please show your support by clicking that like button. It really

helps the channel. And if you want to go even deeper, I've just started my own community called the inverse circle on school. We upload weekly videos, live

school. We upload weekly videos, live lessons, and you'll get access to a community of like-minded people who are learning how to leverage AI in their business, work, and life. The link is in the description box below. And if you

want to learn more about how to use AI to level up your work and your life, then click this next