Dropbox, like every other software and services company in 2023 is leveraging AI in their products. Today 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, work has changed dramatically for many businesses, with hybrid and remote work now established as common work practices.
Dropbox recently sponsored study, conducted by Economist Impact that shows 42% of people surveyed typically don’t spend more than one hour on productive work without interruption. The study also estimates the average knowledge worker loses more than 500 hours to distraction each year, with 157 hours alone lost to unproductive messages from workplace chat apps—the biggest driver of lost focus overall.
In Australia, this figure sits at 600 hours of distraction per knowledge worker, translating to a loss of AUD$27,585 for businesses every year.
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.
People are experiencing information overload and disjointed workflows at unprecedented levels, leading to a waste of brain power on ‘work about work.’ The research highlights that distraction has become a common problem for knowledge workers and this is costing Australian businesses.
Pia Broadley, Head of APAC Dropbox.
We’re building products that have the potential to help solve this problem by automating routine tasks, increasing productivity, and freeing up mental space so people can get back to doing work that matters most. 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
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.
Dropbox Dash is now available to download in open beta and includes enhancements that improve search functionality and help customers get answers.
Employees generally work across dozens of tabs for cloud services, combined with desktop apps and finding what they need can often be challenging.
Dropbox introduced Dash to solve this problem and help people spend more time on important work.
Dropbox took feedback from early customers over the past few months and incorporated a number of improvements to the product, Dash now supports search by keywords 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.
Dash is currently available in English only. To learn more about the product and global availability, visit https://www.dropbox.com/dash.
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
The new experience is available to select customers starting today and will roll out to existing customers in the coming weeks and months. To learn more, visit http://www.dropbox.com/product-updates.
Find content and answers from content across 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.
Dropbox AI is currently in alpha and is expanding to more customers today, with broader availability coming soon. To learn more, visit https://www.dropbox.com/early-access.
Own the video process from start to finish with Dropbox Studio
Video continues to be one of the fastest-growing content types on Dropbox’s platform with over 1.5 billion videos uploaded to Dropbox every year. To address the growing demand, Dropbox introduced new tools like Dropbox Capture and Dropbox Replay to make it easier to record, edit, and get feedback on videos.
Customers have indicated they want more, a single place where they can take videos from start to finish. In response, the company is introducing Dropbox Studio which is a video collaboration tool that lets you seamlessly create, edit, review, approve, and publish high-quality videos.
Dropbox Studio supports the entire video process with:
- A centralized page for users to conveniently access and kick off video projects
- Editing capabilities like trimming and splitting content or removing filler words like “um” and “ah” with one click
- AI-powered features that let customers edit videos bymodifying their transcript
- A feature to easily remove filler words like “um” and “ah” with just one click
- Time-stamped comments to make it simpler to resolve feedback in one place
- A way to post videos directly to Facebook or Instagram
Dropbox Studio will be available in the coming weeks to select customers in alpha in English. To learn more and join the waitlist, visit https://experience.dropbox.com/form/studio.
Dropbox Subscription plans
Dropbox is also launching new one-stop-shop subscription plans with all the tools customers need to find and use their content from a single place, so customers can focus on building and growing their business.
- Dropbox Essentials helps self-employed professionals save time, collaborate seamlessly, and build a business. It works with existing tools, so they can manage content from one place, whether they’re editing PDFs, collecting eSignatures, or tracking analytics on shared documents.
- Dropbox Essentials plan is $22/month per user for monthly subscribers; $18/month per user for annual subscribers
- Dropbox Business is built for teams and includes everything in the Essentials plan along with branded signature requests, pooled storage among team members, external sharing controls and reporting, and an admin console to manage teams. Soon, teams will also have access to share and track team content features and aggregated visitor analytics.**
- Dropbox Business plan is $24/month per user for monthly subscribers; $20/month per user for annual subscribers
- Dropbox Business Plus is for larger teams looking for more storage, easier ways to collaborate remotely, and enhanced security features. In addition to what’s included in the Business plan, Business Plus offers the ability to transfer up to 250GB, one year of version history and recovery, added security and notification features, and more.
- Dropbox Business Plus is $32/month per user for monthly subscribers; $26/month per user for annual subscribers
- **The products or features described above may not be released yet. The decision to purchase our services should be made based on features that are currently available.
The Dropbox plans are available to new customers starting today. Customers on existing plans will automatically get the new experience in the coming weeks and months at the same price. To learn more, visit https://www.dropbox.com/overview.
