No Priors Ep. 51 | With Notion CEO Ivan Zhao

Notion is a productivity app that has invested heavily in AI to create products that enable workers to access information instantly without having to search through their own countless notes. Today on No Priors, Sarah and Elad are joined by Ivan Zhao, the co-founder and CEO of Notion, to talk about Notions Q&A interface and calendar applications. They also get into how using RAG models means better retrieval, longer memory, and the user can be less organized and how Notion is leading the charge in this era of SaaS bundling products. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ivanhzhao Show Notes: 0:00 Introduction 2:09 AI and Computing literacy 5:39 Building the Notion AI team 8:43 Notion as an application company 12:09 Prioritizing AI investment 14:53 The rapid evolution cycle of AI development 17:46 Notion Q&A 20:00 Workflow and AI for calendars 22:43 Moving past the need for organization 24:36 History of SaaS doesn’t repeat, it rhymes 30:14 Design at Notion 34:26 Notion office design 36:52 How RAG will change the future 38:30 Building our the software in the Notionscape

Sarah GuohostIvan ZhaoguestElad Gilhost

Feb 15, 202442mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: February 15, 2024
Duration: 42m
Channel: No Priors
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Notion is a productivity app that has invested heavily in AI to create products that enable workers to access information instantly without having to search through their own countless notes. Today on No Priors, Sarah and Elad are joined by Ivan Zhao, the co-founder and CEO of Notion, to talk about Notions Q&A interface and calendar applications. They also get into how using RAG models means better retrieval, longer memory, and the user can be less organized and how Notion is leading the charge in this era of SaaS bundling products. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ivanhzhao Show Notes: 0:00 Introduction 2:09 AI and Computing literacy 5:39 Building the Notion AI team 8:43 Notion as an application company 12:09 Prioritizing AI investment 14:53 The rapid evolution cycle of AI development 17:46 Notion Q&A 20:00 Workflow and AI for calendars 22:43 Moving past the need for organization 24:36 History of SaaS doesn’t repeat, it rhymes 30:14 Design at Notion 34:26 Notion office design 36:52 How RAG will change the future 38:30 Building our the software in the Notionscape

SPEAKERS

Sarah Guo
host
Ivan Zhao
guest
Elad Gil
host

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of No Priors, featuring Sarah Guo and Ivan Zhao, No Priors Ep. 51 | With Notion CEO Ivan Zhao explores notion CEO Ivan Zhao on AI, bundling, and rethinking knowledge work Ivan Zhao describes Notion as a flexible workspace built from core “Lego brick” primitives—text editor, databases, permissions, comments—that can power many workflows, from personal notes to enterprise knowledge bases. He explains how large language models and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) are transforming Notion into an AI-first platform, especially by turning all workspace content into a searchable, reasoning “perfect memory.” Zhao argues we’re entering a rebundling phase of software, where unified tools and shared embedding spaces beat fragmented SaaS. He also shares how this shift changes hiring, product design, and even the need for traditional information organization, as AI increasingly handles structure, retrieval, and workflow.

RELATED EPISODES