Here’s the thing that’s been running through my head since I first tried out NotebookLM and was impressed by it: if Google can develop something so capable, there are bound to be other tools out there that take a fresh approach and tackle the same problems in equally clever ways. Naturally, I’ve kept my eyes peeled for just that.

I’ve tried quite a few NotebookLM competitors so far, but nothing has really come close to NotebookLM (besides a few experiments Google is working on itself). However, I decided to give one of the tools I previously mentioned in my NotebookLM competitors piece another shot, and this time around, it completely changed my perspective.

The Drive AI fixes one of NotebookLM’s biggest flaws

The organization system NotebookLM should’ve had

The Drive AI is the “world’s first fully agentic file management system,” and it’s essentially meant to help you execute all file operations using only natural language. Back when I first covered the tool, it didn’t offer enough features to make me want to use it again. Everything it could do at that time, I could already do using NotebookLM too.

However, while scrolling through Reddit a few days ago, I came across a post about the tool again, and the title made me stop scrolling — NotebookLM, but files are automatically organized. I recently wrote about how you should stop using NotebookLM as a note-taking app, and one of the reasons I mentioned was how the tool has absolutely no organization system. You can’t create folders to organize your sources within a notebook, create folders to group similar notebooks, add tags, or even search through your notebooks! It’s chaotic, and it’s one of the biggest NotebookLM quirks I hope the team addresses.

So, the idea of a tool handling file organization automatically while offering NotebookLM-like abilities immediately hooked me. When I read the post, I went straight to try the tool again. Since it had already impressed me before with its NotebookLM-like abilities, the first thing I really wanted to see was whether it actually delivers on the “automatic organization” promise this time around. Unlike NotebookLM where you need to create a notebook (or open an existing one) to do absolutely anything, with The Drive AI, you simply upload your files. That’s it.

Now, here’s the cool part — the tool immediately starts analyzing the files once they’re processed, and then automatically finds the right place for each. For instance, I uploaded a few lecture slides for a course (AICT) I’m taking this semester, along with some notes. Given I was testing its organizational abilities, I also threw in a couple of unrelated documents from another course.

Once everything was processed, the tool made two folders, one for each course. And instead of just dumping the relevant documents into the relevant folder, it even organized them into subfolders. For instance, like I mentioned above, I uploaded both lecture slides and notes for the AICT course I’m taking. The Drive AI recognized that and divided my files into three folders: Lecture Slides, Supplementary Materials, and** Lecture Notes by Instructor**.

Funnily enough, I didn’t even realize my slides weren’t created by the same instructor! So it’s clear that the tool organizes by understanding the context of the document instead of relying on the file name. And again, I didn’t need to do anything beyond uploading files and waiting. Granted, it did take the tool a few minutes to process everything, but honestly, I’ll take a short wait over manually sorting files any day.

It even connects to your Gmail

Email inbox chaos sorted

In addition to files you upload, The Drive AI also has an option that lets you connect it to your Gmail inbox. This integration allows the tool to automatically pull in any email attachments you receive and add them to your Drive AI workspace. Instead of just adding the attachments to your workspace, the tool organizes them just as it would with any file you upload.

All of this happens quietly in the background, so when you open your workspace, you’re not greeted with a cluttered mess of newly added files — they’re all neatly placed into their relevant folders. For instance, I emailed myself a few more documents that would go into the AICT folder the tool had created earlier, and sure enough, when I opened the tool again, the new files were already sorted into the right subfolders.

Now, one big drawback of this Gmail integration is that any and every document you receive will be pulled in, even ones you don’t necessarily want in your workspace. For instance, I receive a lot of random press releases, and many of them don’t necessarily fit my coverage area. But with this integration, they end up in my workspace too.

While it takes only a second to delete the folder the tool creates and places them in, I do wish there was a filter option where you could choose which attachments get pulled in based on sender or file type, instead of it being all or nothing. But nonetheless, the convenience outweighs the hassle for the most part.

So, where’s even the NotebookLM part?

It has NotebookLM’s best feature built in

If you’ve made it this far, you might be thinking: where’s even the NotebookLM part in all of this? Isn’t this just an AI tool that organizes your inbox and documents for you? The reason I focused more on the organization bit here is because its organizational abilities are what immediately stood out and genuinely surprised me this time around.

But yes, the NotebookLM part is absolutely there. While NotebookLM doesn’t offer any of the learning features The Drive AI does just yet, it does have one of the tool’s best features: source-grounded responses.

It’s exactly why I’ve stuck to using NotebookLM for so long. If you aren’t familiar with what I mean by source-grounded, it’s essentially when AI only references the files you’ve provided to answer your queries. It doesn’t use its general knowledge or its own intelligence.

Since these tools stay strictly within what you’ve uploaded, hallucinations basically don’t happen because there’s no room for it to make stuff up. It can’t pull info from the internet or its training data, so you know every answer is tied to your documents.

This reliability is why I love NotebookLM so much, and The Drive AI is one of the very few tools that offers it too. In some ways, it’s better than NotebookLM, since you can ask a question right in your workspace without opening a specific file, and the tool can pull the relevant source on its own.

So instead of digging through folders or remembering exactly where something lives, you just fire off your question, and it surfaces the right document for you. For example, my workspace now has a lot of random stuff.

I have an AICT midterm coming up, and instead of finding the file myself, I simply asked, “What’s going to be included in my AICT midterm?” and it instantly gave me a list of all the topics. With NotebookLM, if I needed to do the same, I’d need to find the notebook first and then ask the question. While that isn’t too big of a deal, it does add that extra step.

That said, The Drive AI doesn’t have any of the learning tools NotebookLM does, like Audio Overviews, Mind Maps, Flashcards, Quizzes, and more.

The Drive AI has a huge limitation though

I wish its free tier was less restrictive

As impressed as I am with The Drive AI, it does have a significant limitation. Its free tier is extremely restrictive, in my opinion. You can only ask 5 queries per day, and storage is capped at 5 GB. NotebookLM’s free tier lets you ask 10 times as many questions (50 chat queries per day). On the premium tier, you can ask 500 chat queries per day.

So, there’s a huge difference in usability between the two tools, especially if you plan to rely on them for regular study or work tasks. While The Drive AI’s organizational and source-grounded features are impressive, the query limits on the free tier could quickly become a bottleneck. Unfortunately, the premium tier is also quite expensive and retails for $19.99/month.

I’m glad I gave it a second chance

I’m all for tools that bring something fresh to the table, and The Drive AI does exactly that. Though I do wish the free tier were a bit more generous, I think the tool has immense potential, and I’m incredibly excited to see how it grows. If you’re looking for a smarter NotebookLM, make sure you check it out for yourself.