NotebookLM Just Became an Invaluable AI Assistant for Busy Project Managers
Google has built a synthesizer of data for PMs.

As someone who's spent years juggling tasks, teams, deadlines, and budgets, I know firsthand how critical it is to keep a handle on information.
As project managers, we’re inundated with emails, reports, schedules, project plans, and meeting notes. We’re supposed to distill it all down for our teams and give them the Cliff Notes version. Heaped on top of that workload we need to keep up with new technologies like AI and industry updates—it can be overwhelming.
Just when you think it’s all going off the rails—an experiment is introduced that can take reams of data and provide clarity.
It’s called NotebookLM.
Introducing NotebookLM
NotebookLM didn’t just pop out of nowhere—it began its journey as "Project Tailwind," a test tube tech baby born in Google Labs. Fast forward to Google I/O in 2023, and the public got its first glimpse at a new kind of AI-driven notebook. What does the "LM" in NotebookLM stand for? That stands for "language model," which is the core of its AI brain.
Since July of 2023 Google has been gathering feedback and fine-tuning the model. Now, in 2024 NotebookLM has the following features:
It now supports PDFs, Google Slides, and even copied text.
You can load up to 50 sources per notebook with a whopping 500,000 words each.
You can share your notes with your co-workers.
It’s gone global and is no longer limited to the U.S.
The best feature is that NotebookLM can now generate audio summaries, like a personal podcast of your notes.
Plus, it's now powered by Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google’s top-tier language model for 2024.
If you want a good reference on how to get started with NotebookLM—here is a link.
But how does a tool like NotebookLM apply to project management? Let’s take a look.
Streamlining project management with NotebookLM
When you manage a project, you have meeting minutes, timelines, budgets, and stakeholder feedback—information is coming at you from every direction.
Most project managers still try to wrangle all this data using old-school methods like email folders or creating shared documents and spreadsheets. Even if you keep everything up to date, it's still prone to error, which eats up the project manager's time as they track down errors.
NotebookLM can manage this information overload. It doesn’t just collect data—it helps you make sense of it. Imagine uploading your project files, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and PDFs and letting the AI crunch the data. It can summarize the key points, highlight deadlines, and flag important notes from the clients—all in seconds.
Instead of pouring over documents, it gets you back to managing stakeholders, talking with your team, and policing your project.
AI that thinks like you
NotebookLM doesn't spin out generic summaries or insights.
You are training the AI to think specifically about the content you upload. That’s what makes it such a powerful tool for project managers juggling multiple projects, teams located across the globe, and priorities from multiple stakeholders.
For example, you may be managing three projects simultaneously, each with different timelines, stakeholders, and deliverables. With NotebookLM, you can tutor the AI with the specific documents for each project (each can be its notebook).
You can add documents that may be too technical to understand, and NotebookLM becomes your go-to resource. It can give you relevant answers from that technical brief or legal contract and give you answers tailored to your specific questions.
A project manager is usually managing cross-functional teams. If you’re overseeing marketing, engineering, and finance, you know each department has its own lexicon of terms and phrases. NotebookLM helps PMs bridge those gaps in knowledge by responding and defining the terms each of those teams uses.
Learning and speaking the lingo means miscommunication becomes a thing of the past.
Smarter decisions, faster
When I receive a technical brief from my dev lead or a 50-page master service agreement, I wonder where I will find the time to review these lengthy documents.
Now, I can plug these into NotebookLM, which will highlight the most important details. It saves me time, and I can understand possible pitfalls and address those risks in minutes.
Notebook LM isn't just for distilling data and providing answers. Once your data has been uploaded, it can be a brainstorming partner that can actually give you new ideas on the source material. You may encounter a problem that may seem impossible to solve, need to uncover hidden risks or you may need a fresh perspective.
NotebookLM can help you similar to Claude.ai projects, but this is absolutely free. You rarely see that kind of value in a no-cost tool.
Enhancing team collaboration
Communication is the backbone of successful project management.
We make communication plans and distribute the information to every team member and stakeholder. But if you have a large team or one that is distributed worldwide, misunderstandings and misaligned priorities can put a kink in your plans.
The nice thing about NotebookLM is that you can share the document collections, summaries, and insights with the rest of your team. This provides them with one source, which is a comprehensive summary of the project.
It's a straight-shot roadmap with no fluff. Everyone gets the same information in a bite-sized portion instead of having to dig through the library of documents.
The best feature is NotebookLM's capability to create podcast-style audio summaries. You get two project coordinators (English only at the moment, one male—and the other female) to deliver any document as an audio file.
Most people don't read meeting notes from long meetings—but what if you distributed a podcast version of the notes? I'm sure your team may be more receptive to having another way to absorb project information on their own time or in a different time zone.
Another use would be to take any complex document and get the two hosts to break it down into something you or any team member can understand.
Scaling with your project
As mentioned in the intro, NotebookLM has been expanded so that you can add 50 sources per notebook, and each source can contain 500,000 words (roughly 1700 pages). This has expanded since the last FAQ was updated in December of 2023.
Fifty sources may seem like a lot, but those meeting notes will stack up. The maximum file size is 200MB per source. There's no limit to the number of notebooks, so you can break down projects by the project plan or any other method you desire.
It supports over 35 languages for teams worldwide. NotebookLM uses Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google's latest and most powerful language model. This ensures that NotebookLM is constantly evolving as Google releases new versions, giving project managers access to cutting-edge AI tools.
Keeping your data safe
Google has ensured NotebookLM follows responsible AI practices since data privacy is a growing concern.
You can tell your friendly CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) that your project data isn’t being used to train new models. The AI can only access the specific documents you upload. This safeguard keeps your company’s sensitive information secure, so you don't have to worry about privacy issues or leaks.
Closing thoughts
Project managers need alternative tools to help them manage their data.
NotebookLM should be in everyone's toolbox. I agree with a couple of other tech people and think it's one of the most influential AI tools since ChatGPT.
The best part is that it's free. It's an easy way to incorporate AI into your workflows with a minimum amount of setup and security issues. Most teams will think they are using a Google plugin, which increases the rate of adoption.
Try it out in your workflow and see if it affects how your team handles project data.
Leave your comments in the chat or comments if you have an NotebookLM implementation to tell!
AI-Driven Tools for PMs
NotebookLM - NotebookLM is your personalized AI research assistant powered by Google's most capable model, Gemini 1.5 Pro.
Rize - Rize is an AI productivity coach that uses time tracking to improve your focus and build better work habits.
Fantastical - Events. Tasks. Meetings.
Goblin Tools - Break down any task into a WBS with AI.
AI News PMs Can Use
The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI (Paper)
Cool ChatGPT Prompt for PMs
Generate a Plan for a Project
I’m managing a project that involves multiple teams (e.g., marketing, engineering, and finance), and I need help streamlining communication, tracking progress, and identifying potential risks. Can you help me create an efficient project plan that includes:
A clear communication strategy for cross-functional teams
Key milestones and deadlines for the next 3 months
A system for tracking progress and managing tasks (including specific tools or methods you recommend)
Strategies for identifying and mitigating risks early
Suggestions for automating repetitive tasks using AI or project management software
The goal is to keep everyone aligned, hit deadlines, and reduce the likelihood of issues derailing the project. I’m looking for a simple but effective plan that I can implement quickly.
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I think Notebook LM is the most useful AI tool for project managers right now, besides the everyday versatility of ChatGPT, Claude etc.
Very promising, Chris. For those of us deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, is there an equivalent?