Google Notebook LM Review: How I Saved 5+ Hours Analyzing Research Docs with AI

Google dropped a tool called Notebook LM that promises to chew through your PDFs, research papers, and brand books, then spit out insights in minutes.

I tested it. Because spending six hours highlighting documents is great cardio for your eyes, but a terrible use of time.

Here’s the honest review: what Notebook LM nailed, where it fell flat, and how much faster it made my work.

Why I Tested Google Notebook LM for Document Analysis

The concept immediately appealed to me: upload multiple research papers, PDFs, and documents into one place and have an AI read through everything. For someone juggling content-heavy documents and client deadlines, this seemed worth exploring.

Source: notebook lm

Using Notebook LM for Client Strategy

I used it for a client project where they sent over their brand book and guidelines. I needed to understand their tone, target personas, and messaging to align our media strategy recommendation.

By uploading these documents into Notebook LM, I could extract the relevant information about brand voice and audience definitions. Then I combined this with GlobalWebIndex data to match those personas to actual media behaviors, discovery paths and how they “feel” about certain topics relevant to the brand’s positioning.

This simplified my process considerably. Instead of digging through dense materials, I got distilled insights and focused my time where it mattered most.

Biggest Wins and Annoying Flaws

The biggest upside was clarity. It simplified complex documents and made the content accessible. There's too much fluff in most research—Notebook LM strips it back and helps you focus.

There were downsides too: mispronunciations in audio, some missing nuance in the summaries, and the usual AI limitations regarding accuracy.

But it's a copilot, not the final decision-maker. You still need to verify things—just like you would with work from a junior strategist.

Saved 5+ Hours: Time Gains with Notebook LM

The time savings were significant. Before, I'd spend three to four hours reading and highlighting research documents, putting the highlights together, clustering them to identify certain patterns and another three building a strategy. With Notebook LM, I get the first draft of insights in under 30 minutes—that's five and a half hours saved.

Notebook LM Limitations (and How I Hacked Around Them)

Notebook LM doesn't handle spreadsheets directly—it only supports PDFs, text files, markdown, MP3s, and pasted copy. For Excel or CSV data, I needed a workaround.

I took screenshots of Excel files, converted them to PDFs, and uploaded those. It worked somewhat, but not without frustration. The tool could extract some information, but not with the depth you'd get from other AI tools like Claude.

It can see visual data this way, but don't expect precise analysis. It's adequate for high-level takeaways, not detailed number crunching.

Who in an Agency Can Actually Use Notebook LM?

Notebook LM has potential across the agency. Content teams could use it for insights from research reports. Strategists could identify market trends faster. HR could compile and audio-playback new ideas for culture-building and employee development planning.

Media planners, however, would find less value due to the Excel limitations. And finance teams should avoid it due to privacy concerns.

Final Verdict: Is Google Notebook LM Worth Using?

"Imagine you can have all the documents and all the knowledge put into one—and then listen to it on the go."

That's the promise.

Notebook LM isn't perfect, but it's a solid shortcut for teams that think in inputs rather than just outputs.