Notion isn’t designing AI agents that just use tools. Their agents can autonomously build their own integrations, as well as write the code needed to finish a task. Sarah Guo sits down with Notion Co-Founder Simon Last to explore Notion’s rapid evolution from a simple writing assistant to a sophisticated platform for custom AI agents. Simon discusses the technical hurdles of indexing disparate data from sources like Slack and Google Drive, as well as the internal shift toward using coding agents to build Notion itself. Plus, Simon elaborates on what he sees as a fundamental transition in productivity: moving from a tool where humans do the work, to one where humans manage a swarm of agents.
Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com
Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @simonlast | @NotionHQ
Chapters:
00:00 – Cold Open
00:05 – Simon Last Introduction
00:26 – Genesis of Notion AI
04:10 – Challenge of Semantic Indexing and Retrieval
07:16 – The Six-Month Rewrite Cycle
08:12 – Notion’s Coding Agent Era
09:44 – Impact on Team Dynamics
12:49 – Launching Custom Agents
15:39 – Notion as the ‘Switzerland’ for Models
17:33 – Designing APIs for Agent Customers
20:09 – Simon’s Personal Agentic Workflows
24:48 – Notion: Tool for Work is Now A Tool for Agents
27:28 – How Building Has Changed for Simon
29:00 – Conclusion
