Best AI search tool for teams in 2026

Last updated May 2026

The average knowledge worker spends 20% of their week looking for information they know exists somewhere. The file is in Google Drive or Dropbox or SharePoint or Slack or Confluence or someone's email. The answer was discussed in a meeting, written in a doc, or mentioned in a thread. It's there. You just can't find it.

AI search tools promise to fix this. Ask a question in natural language, get an answer grounded in your company's data. But the tools approach the problem differently. Some are enterprise search layers. Some are AI assistants inside existing workspaces. Some are knowledge systems with search built in. The right choice depends on what you need beyond finding things.

Here are five approaches, each solving a different version of the search problem.

Quick comparison

Fabric

Fabric is the only tool on this list where search and creation live in the same product. You save content. The AI understands it. You search it. You work with it. One place.

What makes the search different: Fabric doesn't just search text across connected apps. It searches meaning across every content format:

• Semantic search finds content even when you describe it differently from how it was written. Not keyword matching. Meaning matching.

• Inside PDFs, jumping to the exact page and paragraph.

• Inside audio and video via automatic transcription, to the timestamp.

• Visual search: upload a reference image, find similar content across your library.

• Colour search: find assets by palette.

• Cross-platform search across Google Drive, Notion, Dropbox, Gmail, and your Fabric library.

No other tool on this list searches inside PDFs by paragraph, inside video by transcript, across images by visual similarity, and by colour palette. That's not incremental. It's a different depth of search.

Beyond search: Notes with real-time co-editing. A spatial canvas with live embeds. Annotations on any content. Bot-free meeting transcription. Tasks with due dates. Publishing with analytics. Finding information is one step. Doing something with it is the next. Fabric handles both.

Limitations: Fewer enterprise connectors than Glean. Not embedded inside Microsoft 365 or Notion the way Copilot and Notion AI are. No enterprise compliance certifications (HIPAA, FedRAMP).

Best for: Teams who need to find things across diverse content types (not just text) and then work with what they find. Individuals and small-to-mid teams who want deep AI search without enterprise pricing. The tool that combines search and creation. See also: Fabric vs Glean and Fabric vs Dashworks.

Glean

Glean is the enterprise standard for AI workplace search. Connect 100+ apps. One search bar across all of them. Permission-aware results.

What it does well: Broadest connector coverage in the category. Hybrid search (keyword + vector + RAG). Permission-aware: you only see what you're authorised to see. Conversational AI assistant. Work AI agents for multi-step workflows. Indexes existing content automatically with minimal maintenance. Named a Leader in the Forrester Wave for enterprise search.

Limitations: ~$45-50/user/month base plus ~$15/user/month AI add-on. $50-60K/year minimum. 100-seat minimum. IT-managed deployment. Text-only: no search inside PDFs by paragraph, no video/audio search, no visual or colour search. Search-only: no content creation, no notes, no canvas. Makes stale content more findable, not more accurate.

Best for: Large enterprises (1,000+ employees) with knowledge scattered across dozens of tools and the budget for enterprise search infrastructure. See also: Fabric vs Glean.

Dashworks

Dashworks is a lighter-weight alternative to Glean for small-to-mid companies. AI search and answers across your team's connected apps. Being acquired by HubSpot.

What it does well: More accessible than Glean at ~$9.99/user/month. AI answers grounded in your company's data. Connects to Slack, Google Workspace, Notion, GitHub, Jira, and more. Can draft emails, docs, and social content from company data. Simpler deployment than Glean.

Limitations: Being acquired by HubSpot (product direction uncertain). Fewer connectors than Glean. Text-only search: no PDFs by paragraph, no audio/video, no visual search. No content creation beyond AI drafting. No notes, canvas, or workspace features.

Best for: Small-to-mid companies wanting unified AI search across existing tools without Glean's pricing. Factor the HubSpot acquisition into any long-term evaluation. See also: Fabric vs Dashworks.

Notion AI

Notion AI is the AI layer inside the most popular workspace tool. If your team already lives in Notion, the AI searches and answers from your existing content.

What it does well: Embedded in the workspace you already use. "Ask Notion" answers questions across your pages, databases, and wikis. Connected source search (Google Drive, Slack) on Business. AI writing assistance inside the editor. Custom Agents ($10/1,000 credits) for specialised workflows. No separate tool to deploy.

Limitations: Only sees Notion content and connected sources on Business ($20/user/month). PDFs and files are attachments, not deeply indexed. No search inside PDFs by paragraph, no audio/video search, no visual or colour search. 20 total AI responses on Free/Plus plans (not per month, total). Custom Agent credits add cost.

Best for: Teams already in Notion who want AI search without adding another tool. Strongest when most of your knowledge already lives in Notion pages. See also: Fabric vs Notion AI.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is the AI layer across Microsoft 365. If your organisation runs on SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, and Office apps, Copilot searches and works across all of them.

What it does well: Deep integration with the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Summarises emails, meetings, and documents. Drafts content inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Answers questions across SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. Works inside the apps your team already uses daily. Enterprise compliance (HIPAA, FedRAMP).

Limitations: $30/user/month on top of existing M365 licensing. A 50-person team pays $1,500/month for AI. Only searches Microsoft 365 content by default: searching Slack, Google Drive, or non-Microsoft tools requires separately configured Graph Connectors. No visual, colour, or in-video search.

Best for: Organisations fully committed to Microsoft 365 who want AI embedded in their existing Office workflow. The enterprise option for Microsoft shops.

How to choose

If you need search plus a workspace: Fabric. The only tool here that combines deep AI search with notes, canvas, tasks, meeting transcription, and publishing. Find things and then do something with them in one place.

If you're a large enterprise with 100+ tools: Glean. Broadest connector coverage. Enterprise-grade search infrastructure.

If you're a smaller team wanting unified search: Dashworks. Lighter deployment, lower cost, more accessible. Factor in the HubSpot acquisition.

If your team already lives in Notion: Notion AI. No new tool to adopt. AI works on your existing content.

If your organisation runs on Microsoft 365: Copilot. Deep integration with Office, SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook.

If you need the deepest search across the most formats: Fabric. Semantic, visual, colour, inside PDFs, inside video, cross-platform. No other tool on this list matches the depth.

What most AI search comparisons miss

Most articles about AI search tools compare connectors, pricing, and basic feature lists. They miss the question that matters: what can the tool actually search inside?

Searching across 100 apps is different from searching inside the content of those apps. A tool that finds the right Google Doc is useful. A tool that finds the right paragraph inside the right PDF inside the right folder is more useful. A tool that finds images by visual similarity, assets by colour palette, and moments in recordings by what was said is a different category of search entirely.

The depth distinction matters more than the breadth distinction. Having 100 connectors but only searching text surfaces the filing system. Having fewer connectors but searching meaning, inside documents, inside recordings, and across visual content surfaces the knowledge.

Fabric's search goes deepest across the most formats. Glean goes broadest across the most enterprise apps. The others fall between. Your choice depends on whether the problem is "we can't search across enough tools" or "we can't find what's inside the tools we already search."

See also: best knowledge management software.

FAQs

Which is cheapest?

Fabric at $5/month+ with per-user pricing. Dashworks at ~$9.99/user/month. Notion AI bundled into Business at $20/user/month. Copilot at $30/user/month add-on. Glean at $45-50+/user/month. For a 20-person team: Fabric $5/month, Dashworks $200/month, Notion $400/month, Copilot $600/month, Glean $12,000+/year.

Which searches the deepest?

Fabric. Inside PDFs by paragraph, inside audio and video by transcript, across images by visual similarity, across assets by colour palette. No other tool on this list offers all of these.

Which connects to the most tools?

Glean (100+ enterprise apps). Copilot (Microsoft 365 ecosystem). Dashworks (Slack, Google, Notion, Jira, and more). Fabric (Google Drive, Notion, Dropbox, Gmail, GitHub, and more).

Do any of these create content, not just search?

Fabric (full workspace: notes, canvas, tasks, publishing, meeting transcription). Notion AI (workspace inside Notion). Copilot (drafts inside Office apps). Glean and Dashworks are search-only.

Which handles non-text content?

Only Fabric. Audio, video, images, PDFs with in-document search. Every other tool on this list is fundamentally text-based search across text-based sources.

Is Glean worth $50K+ per year?

For enterprises with 1,000+ employees, dozens of tools, and significant time lost to searching, yes. Glean claims 110 hours saved per user per year. For smaller teams, the cost doesn't fit. Fabric or Dashworks serve the same need at a fraction of the price.