Dropbox is Powering the Next Generation of Knowledge Work

October 10, 2023 at 09:20 AM EDT

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

Aug X Labs and LlamaIndex named first investment partners as part of Dropbox Ventures

Today at its Work in Progress user conference, Dropbox (NASDAQ: DBX) 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.

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.

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.

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

Over the last few years, video has emerged as 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. But customers need more—a single place where they can take videos from start to finish. That’s why the company is introducing Dropbox Studio, a video collaboration tool that lets customers 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 by modifying 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.

Introducing Dropbox Essentials, Business, and Business Plus

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.

Dropbox Ventures makes investments in Aug X Labs and LlamaIndex

Dropbox is also announcing Aug X Labs and LlamaIndex as the first partners of Dropbox Ventures, a $50 million initiative to invest in startups that are building the next generation of AI-powered apps and tools. With Aug X Labs’ video creation tool and LlamaIndex’s data framework, Dropbox is supporting startups that are shaping the modern work experience through the power of AI.

No matter what tools or content customers work with, Dropbox is powering the modern work experience to help people do their best work. To learn more, visit https://blog.dropbox.com/topics/company/updated-tools-new-plans-and-web-redesign.

About Dropbox

Dropbox is one place to keep life organized and keep work moving. With more than 700 million registered users across 180 countries, we’re on a mission to design a more enlightened way of working. Dropbox is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. For more information on our mission and products, visit dropbox.com.