NotebookLM is quickly becoming indispensable for business leaders, board members, and anyone who has to synthesize a large amount of data in a small amount of time. Now, with the introduction of the Learning Guide chat feature, you can quickly create training materials based on your own internal company files.
HR professionals will quickly see the value; until now, the creation of custom learning modules was limited to either creating a series of slide presentations or purchasing a learning management system (LMS) for a more advanced experience. Now, you can use company materials to create your own learning materials with an LMS feel in minutes.
How to Use NotebookLM to Create a Training Guide
Let’s take a step back and look at how to use NotebookLM. To start, go to notebooklm.google and click “Try NotebookLM”. If you’re a paid Google Workspace subscriber, you’ll be presented with a screen inviting you to create a new Notebook. Don’t worry about adding all of your source materials now, you can add more later.
Each Notebook is meant to stand on its own for a particular purpose. If you want to create a learning module about a specific topic, such as training about how to handle specific situations or tasks at your company, you would create a separate notebook for each topic.
Then, you would feed in the sources relevant to that topic. So if you want to train your staff in how to handle customer service escalations, you would upload any policies and procedures surrounding that, as well as any instructions you would like to give. You can also select files from your Google Drive, rather than downloading and uploading.
Once your materials are in place, share your notebook with others in the organization. Please note that you must upgrade to the Google AI Pro or Ultra Plan in order to share your notebooks. You will want to share the full notebook so that your learners can dive into the source material.
Once it is shared, your learners can click the filter menu at the top right of the middle window, as illustrated in the video here, to configure their chat preferences. Once they click “Learning Guide”, they will be able to ask questions, and Google’s AI-powered chat will step them through their questions to offer an interactive learning experience - exactly as if they were asking questions of a manager at your company.
Other Things You can do With NotebookLM
While NotebookLM was originally created for students, there are many uses for it in a business context. These include:
- Synthesizing a large amount of information in a short amount of time, such as materials to prepare for a board or shareholder meeting
- For HR professionals, creating an onboarding guide based on company materials
- Creating executive summaries using multiple files as inputs (referred to in NotebookLM as a briefing doc)
- Writing a blog post or other marketing/communications deliverables
- Creating AI-generated audio or video overviews based on your sources
Training with Notebooks in NotebookLM gives your learners a central repository of information that they can continually use at their jobs, and commonly asked questions can be handled by the tool rather than by management. It saves time and puts everything they need about a particular topic in front of them when they need it most.
Everyone at your company wants a clear repository of information, and new hires will have more confidence in themselves and your business if they’re presented with a quick path to learn specifically about your company and how it operates. Notebook LM gives you the tools you need to create that central learning system without the overhead cost of an LMS.
There’s a lot more you can do with the Google AI Pro or Ultra Plans than just share notebooks. Contact us to find out how you can supercharge your business with AI-generated videos, AI-generated photos, and custom agentic AI capabilities.
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