"AI Should Bring Us Closer Together, Not Make Us More Lonely" with Akshay Kothari Co-Founder of Notion

Akshay Kothari is the COO and co-founder of Notion, the workspace platform now used by over a hundred million people. Before Notion, he co-founded Pulse, the newsreader app built as a Stanford class project that Steve Jobs name-checked on stage at WWDC 2010 before LinkedIn acquired it. He joined Notion in 2018 when the team was fewer than ten people, and in this conversation with Georgie Healy he traces that journey and where knowledge work is heading as agents take centre stage.Akshay shares his AI hack of the week, turning a screenshot of restaurant recommendations into a shareable Notion database, and explains how the unit of work has shifted from taking notes to simply having a chat. He unpacks the design obsession behind Notion's identity, the block architecture that lets anyone build their own tools, and the new Developer Platform that brings outside agents like Claude and Codex onto Notion's context graph. He paints a picture of a "factory of agents" working round the clock while humans move to reviewing and applying taste, makes the case for model optionality and cost control, and shares his rule for custom agents: macro delegate, then micro steer.In the Blink of AI is made possible by our wonderful partnersDeelGlobal hiring and payroll can be a headache. Deel brings HR, IT and payroll together in one platform, helping companies including Shopify, Revolut and ElevenLabs scale internationally.Ready to expand your business?Build your global team with Deel at deel.com/dayone.✨ Connect with Georgie HealyWeekly Substack: https://georgiehealy.substack.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georginahealytech/The Day One NetworkIn The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletterMentioned in this episode:Deel x PX_Post Intro