The cloud-based file-sharing company Dropbox Inc. today announced the launch of its new artificial intelligence-based search feature Dropbox Dash into open beta test along with enhancements to its AI-powered summarization experience Dropbox AI.

The company also announced that it is also rolling out a new all-in-one tool that will allow customers to capture, edit and get feedback videos called Dropbox Studio.

Best known for its file-sharing service that allows users to store files in the cloud and synchronize them across any device, Dropbox allows users to store and organize a large number of files quickly across vast distances. However, that doesn’t mean users can easily understand or organize their files.

Dropbox Dash, an AI-powered search assistant that was announced in June, is a universal search tool that connects all of a user’s apps together in one place with a single search bar to help them locate their content. For example, by including connectors for Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce, this allows users to find whatever they’re looking for without needing to switch between apps to find it.

“Our digital environments were never designed to be our primary work spaces,” said Dropbox co-founder and Chief Executive Drew Houston. “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.”

During the past few months of early beta and slowly allowing users access to the software, Dropbox used feedback from users to understand the needs of customers. It has now been updated to support search by keywords and semantic search, which provides contextually relevant search. Users no longer need to recall long titles to find what they need.

Customers may now ask Dash a question and it will use generative AI to gather and summarize relevant information from connected apps and provide answers based on the content of their data. After retrieving information, users can quickly jump to the relevant app through shortcuts and save it on a start page in Dash, with a quick way to save, organize and access their universal search.

Dash is currently available in English in beta testing mode as a downloadable app.

Dropbox AI, currently in alpha testing mode, also initially launched in June, originally began as a capability that could summarize a large file, such as a long video, contract or document. Now it can summarize content across the entire Dropbox account through the search bar. Users merely type a question and it will sift through their entire account and pull content from the relevant files to provide a brief summary of each file.

Using the new feature, it can use natural language to understand prompts such as “show me photos from my photoshoot yesterday.” It will then scan through Dropbox and surface images matching the search criteria. This will open up altogether new opportunities for conversationally asking the search bar to to find files that keywords would never be able to discover.

Users also can customize the AI features enabled on their account in their settings, which will give them more control over what Dropbox does with their data. If customers don’t want Dropbox AI to provide certain capabilities, they can toggle on and off certain capabilities, or turn them all off altogether.

Dropbox Studio for all-in-one video editing and sharing

Dropbox also announced Dropbox Studio, an all-in-one video content creator and editor that allows users to create, edit, review, approve and publish high-quality videos right on their computer and then share them easily with others so that they can collaborate on their work.

Studio provides a centralized page for users to access video projects so that they can get started right away in a way that’s intuitive and looks similar to other editors. It provides editing capabilities such as trimming and splitting content. It also includes AI-capabilities that will allow them to edit videos by modifying the transcript, such as clipping out words, and a feature that allows them to remove filler words such as “um” and “ah” with a click.

Dropbox has already dipped into the video recording and collaboration with features such as Capture and Replay. With Capture, users can record their screen, provide voiceovers, capture screenshots and place the result directly into their shared folder in order to collaborate on the results for feedback. With Replay, multiple people can view a video at once and place time-stamped feedback, draw on the video, and use threaded comments.

For collaboration, the editor also has time-stamped comments brought in from Replay that will make it easier to resolve feedback from other users in one place. For publishing, Studio provides a way to post videos directly to Facebook or Instagram, making it simple to get the video online without needing to export and then upload.

Dropbox Studio is rolling out in the coming weeks to select customers in alpha mode in English. Details on how to join the waitlist are available on the Studio website.

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