The reason why NotebookLM is among the best AI tools out there currently isn’t just because of its learning tools. Well, that’s a huge factor, but I wouldn’t say it’s the main reason it stands out. The real kicker is the ability to upload your own files and interact with them without worrying about the AI making up information (which, in slightly more technical terms, is what we call hallucinations).

This is because NotebookLM grounds itself in the sources you upload to your notebook, and then only references the data within the notebook when you ask it questions or generate Audio Overviews, Mind Maps, or anything using its learning tools. In my opinion, that’s NotebookLM’s biggest draw. It makes working with your own information easier, and it’s exactly how AI should be implemented. All that said, while NotebookLM supports a wide range of file formats, it weirdly didn’t support one of the most commonly used formats, until now.

You can now add .docx files to NotebookLM

As announced via The Keyword blog, Google Labs revealed that NotebookLM now supports new file formats. You can now add Google Sheets, PDFs from Google Drive, Google Drive files from URLs, and wait for it… Microsoft Word documents! For reasons unknown, it’s taken Google this long to add .docx support to NotebookLM, but it’s finally happening.

This means you’ll no longer need to go through the hassle of using file converters to get your Word documents into NotebookLM. Now, you can upload them directly and start interacting with the content immediately. This should make pairing NotebookLM with Word a lot easier.

Deep Research finally comes to NotebookLM

That’s not all that NotebookLM announced today, though. Deep Research, which is my favorite Gemini feature, is finally coming to NotebookLM. In the blog, Google explains:

With your guidance, Deep Research takes your question, creates a research plan, and browses hundreds of websites on your behalf, refining its search as it learns. In a few minutes, it generates an organized, insightful, source-grounded report.

While Deep Research essentially works the same way it does within Gemini, what makes it different in NotebookLM is that you can add the report it generates and the sources it used directly into your NotebookLM notebook. You can also continue to populate your notebook with other sources while Deep Research runs in the background. There are two research styles you can choose from: Fast Research or Deep Research. The former is ideal for quick searches and rapidly scans for information, while the latter does an in-depth analysis.

I’ve already been pairing NotebookLM with Gemini’s Deep Research capability and would have had to manually add all the reports I’d generated. So, I’m glad this is finally being added to NotebookLM! Deep Research being added to NotebookLM was already expected, as Reddit and Discord users started seeing it pop up recently when using NotebookLM. Deep Research in NotebookLM is still rolling out, so you might not see it immediately.