Dropbox announces Dropbox Dash in open beta, AI enhancements, a redesigned web experience with a new plan lineup, and all-in-one video collaboration Studio
Dropbox announced enhancements to its latest category of AI-powered products, Dropbox AI and Dropbox Dash, a redesigned web experience, an all-in-one video tool called Dropbox Studio, and three new workflow plans, along with the first investment partners of Dropbox Ventures.
Over the last few years, knowledge work has radically transformed, and the pandemic lockdown ushered in a new era of hybrid, distributed, and remote work. While there were clear benefits, like flexibility and more control over when and how to work, this shift also came with challenges as digital environments became more chaotic, and information overload and context switching consumed our time. As a result, knowledge workers struggle to find focus and be productive. Dropbox aims to address these challenges, and design distributed work 2.0.
According to a new Dropbox-sponsored study conducted by Economist Impact, 42% of people surveyed said they typically don’t spend more than an hour on productive work without interruption. The study also estimates the average knowledge worker loses more than five hundred hours to distraction each year, with 157 hours alone lost to unproductive messages from workplace chat apps—the biggest driver of lost focus overall.
At the same time, generative AI is opening up a world of possibilities to build products that enhance modern work. In fact, the study also showed that of people who report using automation tools—which are increasingly powered by AI—79% said they’re more productive, while nearly 70% said they’re more organized.
“Our digital environments were never designed to be our primary work spaces. People are experiencing information overload and disjointed workflows at unprecedented levels, leading to a waste of brain power on ‘work about work.’ AI has the potential to help people thrive by automating routine tasks, increasing productivity, and freeing up mental space so people can get back to doing the work that matters most,” said Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. “We combined the best of remote and in-person work with our Virtual First model and transformed Dropbox into a lab for distributed work 2.0 to design the tools to power this new era. The updates we’re launching today are just the first step on this journey.”
Search across tools, apps, and content with AI-powered Dropbox Dash
Dropbox Dash is now available to download in open beta and includes enhancements that improve search functionality and help customers get answers. Dash is AI-powered universal search that connects to people’s apps, tools, content in a single search bar to help them find their content. It also features Stacks, smart collections for links that offer a quick way to save, organize, and retrieve URLs, and a start page to access universal search, view Stacks, get shortcuts to recent work, and start meetings, making it easier for customers to navigate the work day.
Now that work spans hundreds of tabs and apps between the desktop and browser, it is painstaking for people to find what they need. Dropbox introduced Dash to solve this problem and help people spend more time on important work.
After iterating on feedback from customers over the past few months, Dash now supports search by keywords—so customers don’t have to remember long titles—and semantic search, which provides more contextually relevant search results. Customers can also ask Dash a question and it will use generative AI to gather and summarize relevant info from connected apps, files, and content to get people answers, fast.
A redesigned web experience to support all types of content and workflows
Dropbox is also introducing a redesigned web experience to support the way its customers are working today and ensure the experience is easier than ever for customers to get work done — without ever leaving Dropbox.
The new redesign offers a cleaner experience for customers to organize their content, collaborate with team members, and seamlessly complete their most critical tasks with features like:
- An updated left navigation streamlines the features customers need and includes an expandable folder tree to help them go directly to the content they need
- A new action bar sits across the browser page to let customers quickly record their screen, edit PDFs, upload files, create folders, get signatures, or send and track documents
- Redesigned file previews offer dynamic content previews, making it easier to edit images, videos, and PDFs
Dropbox AI offers summaries and answers from content across entire accounts
Dropbox AI initially launched in June with file previews to help customers summarize and get answers on large pieces of content, like long videos and audio files, contracts, and white papers. Now, customers can ask questions and summarize content across their entire Dropbox account. Simply ask a question in the Dropbox search bar, and in seconds, Dropbox AI will sift through content to pull up answers and relevant files, along with a brief summary of each file, so people can find what they need faster.
Additionally, Dropbox AI can use natural language to understand prompts like “show me photos from my photoshoot yesterday.” Customers can also now manage what AI features are enabled in account settings, giving them more control over their use of AI in Dropbox.
SOURCE: BusinessWire
