Workplace search

Workplace search tools answer questions from a company's own information. They connect to the apps a team already uses, such as file storage, chat, email, ticketing systems and wikis, and let people search all of it from one place or ask a question in plain language. Glean, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Atlassian Rovo, Notion AI and Guru each take a different route to the same goal.

Where you start usually depends on where your work lives. A company that runs on Microsoft 365 will look at Copilot first, since it already sits inside Outlook, Teams and SharePoint. A team built around Jira and Confluence will look at Rovo. Glean is designed to connect many different apps at once, and Guru centers on a curated knowledge base that subject experts verify on a schedule.

Permissions are the most important thing to test. A good workplace search tool only shows each person what they could already open in the source app. Problems usually come from the source apps themselves, such as a folder shared with the whole company years ago. Before rollout, check a few private channels and restricted folders, and tidy up old sharing settings that search would now surface.

Also ask how answers are sourced. A useful answer links to the document or message it came from, so people can check it and see who wrote it. Ask the vendor how often content is re-indexed, which AI models are used, where data is processed and stored, and whether your data is used to train models. Most of these products are sold per seat, and some are available only as part of a wider plan.

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5 AI search tools in workplace search

Glean

Workplace search and assistant that answers questions from a company's apps and documents while respecting their permissions.

  • Shows sources with answers
  • AI-written answers

Microsoft 365 Copilot

by Microsoft

AI assistant inside Microsoft 365 that searches your organization's email, files, chats and meetings to answer questions.

  • Shows sources with answers
  • AI-written answers

Guru

Company knowledge base with AI search that answers questions from verified cards and connected apps.

  • AI-written answers

Notion AI

by Notion

AI in Notion that answers questions from your workspace pages and connected apps, and drafts and summarizes text.

  • AI-written answers

Rovo

by Atlassian

Atlassian's AI search and chat that finds answers across Jira, Confluence and connected third-party apps.

  • AI-written answers

Start with a pilot group, measure whether people find things faster, and collect the questions the tool answered badly, since those point to missing or outdated documentation.

Content quality matters as much as the tool. Search can only return what has been written down, and it returns outdated pages as readily as current ones. Teams that get the most out of workplace search assign owners to important pages, archive old ones, and use the questions people ask as a guide to what needs documenting next. Some tools, such as Guru, build a review schedule into the product so content gets checked regularly instead of drifting.

Revisit the setup every few months as teams adopt new apps, since content stored outside the connected tools stays invisible to search.

Questions about workplace search

Will workplace search show people documents they shouldn't see?

Well-built tools follow the permissions in each source app, but they also surface anything that was shared too widely. Audit old sharing settings and test restricted folders and private channels before rollout.

Which workplace search tool fits our company?

Start with where your work lives. Microsoft 365 Copilot suits Microsoft-based teams, Rovo suits Atlassian users, and Glean is built to connect many apps. Run a trial with your real content.

Is our company data used to train AI models?

Ask each vendor directly and read the contract. Many business plans state that customer data is not used for training, but terms differ, and they can differ between plans from the same company.

Do answers show where they came from?

The better tools link each answer to its source document or message. Insist on that during a trial, because it lets people check answers and find out who owns the information.

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