Perplexity, NotebookLM, Sider: A Setup Guide to 3 AI Work Assistants

Setup Guide to 3 AI Work Assistants: Perplexity · NotebookLM · Sider

A McKinsey survey found that workers spend an average of 2.5 hours a day on research. Setting up Perplexity (AI search), NotebookLM (document analysis and summaries), and Sider (browser sidebar AI) together can cut that time by more than half. This guide walks you through everything from sign-up to practical setup, so clearly you can follow along without looking at the screen.

1. Perplexity — AI-Powered Search and Research Engine

1-1. What Is Perplexity?

Perplexity is an AI search engine that, when you enter a question, searches the entire web in real time and gives you an organized answer with sources (source links). It compresses into one step the four steps of Google search → clicking links → reading the content → summarizing.

1-2. Sign Up and Initial Setup

1. In your browser, go to perplexity.ai.

2. Click the "Sign Up" button at the top right.

3. Sign up with a Google account, an Apple account, or your email.

   • 💡 Signing up with your company Google Workspace account makes team sharing easier later.

4. On the onboarding screen that appears right after sign-up, select "I'm a Professional".

5. Even on the Free plan, you get 5 Pro Searches (deep searches) per day.

1-3. Configuring Key Features

Change the default search mode:

• Click the "Focus" dropdown below the search box.

• You can choose from All, Academic, Writing, Wolfram|Alpha, YouTube, and Reddit.

• For B2B sales research, keep "All" as the default, and choose "Academic" when you need paper-based data.

Turn on Pro Search:

• Switch on the toggle at the left of the search box to enter Pro Search mode.

• To understand what you are really asking, Pro Search asks 1–2 clarifying questions and then returns more precise results.

Create a Collection:

1. In the left sidebar, click "Library" → "New Collection".

2. Enter a collection name. For example: 2024 Q4 Competitor Analysis, SaaS Market Trends

3. Then click the "+" icon at the right of a search result to save it to that collection.

💡 You can set default instructions for the AI (System Prompt) for each collection. In the collection settings, enter the following in the "AI Profile" field:

I am a salesperson at a B2B SaaS company. In every answer, include Korean market data first, and state the source and publication year. Format your answers as bullet points.

1-4. Practical Prompt Examples

Competitor analysis:

List the 5 leading companies offering CRM solutions in the Korean B2B SaaS market. Compare each company's main customer segments, pricing policy, and major updates from the past year in a table.

Meeting prep:

Tell me about the company "ABC Manufacturing." Find recent news on its digital transformation, the IT solutions it currently uses, and information on its key decision-makers. This is to prepare for a sales meeting.

Industry trend research:

Summarize the state of AI adoption in Korean manufacturing in 2024, based on the latest reports. Include figures on adoption rate, main use cases, and budget size.

💡 Clicking the follow-up questions in the "Related" section at the bottom of a Perplexity answer lets you extend your research naturally. After an average of 3–4 follow-ups, you will have gathered about a report’s worth of information.

2. NotebookLM — An AI Tool for Document-Based Analysis and Summaries

2-1. What Is NotebookLM?

Made by Google, NotebookLM is an AI tool that answers questions using only the documents you upload as its sources. Because it relies on your materials rather than outside information, hallucinations (fabricated information) are extremely rare, and every answer shows the exact location in the source document.

2-2. Signing Up and Initial Setup

1. In your browser, go to notebooklm.google.com.

2. Log in with your Google account (only Google accounts are supported).

   • 💡 If you log in with your company Google Workspace account, Google Drive integration is enabled automatically.

3. After logging in, click the "New Notebook" button on the main screen.

4. Name your notebook. For example: Q4 Sales Strategy Research, New Client Analysis

2-3. How to Upload Sources

Right after you create a notebook, the Add Sources screen appears. You can upload materials in the following formats:

• Google Docs: Select directly from Drive

• Google Slides: Presentation materials

• PDF files: Drag and drop from your computer

• Text files: .txt format

• Website URLs: Paste a link

• Copied text: Paste it in directly

• YouTube URLs: Analysis based on video transcripts

Upload steps:

1. In the "Sources" area of the left panel, click the "+" (Add Source) button.

2. Choose the upload type (Google Drive / PDF Upload / Website / YouTube, etc.).

3. Select a file or paste a URL, then click "Insert".

4. When the upload finishes, the list of source documents appears on the left, with a checkbox next to each source.

💡 You can upload up to 50 sources per notebook, with up to 500,000 words per source. Add sales proposals, competitor catalogs, client meeting notes, and more all at once for integrated analysis.

2-4. Using the Key Features

Checking the auto-summary:

• Once you upload sources, a "Source Guide" is generated automatically in the main area on the right.

• It shows each document's key topics, main points, and suggested questions.

Asking about selected sources:

• If you check only specific documents in the source list on the left, answers are limited to those documents.

• Example: Check only Competitor A's and Competitor B's materials → you can ask questions that compare the two companies

Saving notes:

• Click "Save to note" (📌 icon) at the bottom of an AI answer to save it as a note.

• Saved notes can be viewed, edited, and merged in the "Notes" tab at the top.

Generate an Audio Overview:

1. Click "Notebook guide" at the top right.

2. In the "Audio Overview" section, click "Generate".

3. NotebookLM generates a podcast-style audio briefing based on all the sources you uploaded (English-based).

4. Listen with earbuds on your commute to review your materials.

2-5. Practical prompt examples

Client proposal analysis:

From the 3 uploaded proposals, create a table comparing each one's key proposal, pricing terms, and delivery schedule. Recommend the proposal with the terms most favorable to our company and explain why.

Meeting prep briefing:

Analyze the 5 uploaded client meeting notes and summarize: ① pain points the client raised repeatedly ② requests that are still unresolved ③ key agenda items to cover in the next meeting.

💡 NotebookLM’s answers always come with citation numbers [1], [2]. Click a number to jump straight to the matching passage in the original document, so you can check your sources instantly when writing reports.

3. Sider — A browser sidebar AI assistant

3-1. What is Sider?

Sider is an AI sidebar that runs as a Chrome extension. While you view a web page, you can ask the AI to summarize, translate, answer questions, or write for you. The key is using AI instantly right beside the screen you’re already on, without switching to a separate tab.

3-2. Installation and sign-up

1. In the Chrome browser, go to the Chrome Web Store (chrome.google.com/webstore).

2. Type "Sider" in the search box and find "Sider - ChatGPT Sidebar + GPT-4o".

3. Click the "Add to Chrome" button → confirm "Add extension" in the pop-up.

4. After installation, click the puzzle icon (Extensions) at the top right of the browser.

5. Click the 📌 pin icon next to Sider to pin it to the toolbar.

6. Click the Sider icon to open the sidebar.

7. Sign up or log in with your Google account or email.

💡 The free plan includes 30 queries per day. You can choose from models such as GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, so you can switch models depending on the task.

3-3. Setting up the core features

Set the shortcut to open the sidebar:

1. Click the Settings (⚙️) icon at the bottom of the Sider sidebar.

2. Under "Shortcut", check the sidebar toggle shortcut.

   • Default: Cmd + P (Mac) / Ctrl + P (Windows)

   • If it conflicts with another shortcut, you can change it to a key you prefer.

Choose your default AI model:

1. Click the model selection dropdown at the top of the sidebar.

2. Choose GPT-4o mini when you need fast responses, or GPT-4o or Claude 3.5 Sonnet for more sophisticated analysis.

Turn on the automatic popup for selected text:

1. In Settings, switch “Selection Popup” to ON.

2. From then on, whenever you drag to select text on a webpage, the Sider mini popup appears.

3. From the popup, you can run actions such as Explain, Summarize, Translate, and Rewrite right away.

3-4. Key tabs at a glance

The Sider sidebar has several tabs. Here is what each one does:

• Chat: General AI conversation. You can ask questions unrelated to the current page, too.

• Read: Analyzes the entire webpage you are viewing. An automatic summary is generated as soon as you open it.

• Write: Helps you draft text such as emails, reports, and social media posts.

• More Tools: A collection of specialty features such as translation, grammar check, and code explanation.

3-5. Practical use scenarios

Scenario 1: Instantly summarize an English press release

1. Open an English news article.

2. Press Cmd + P to open the Sider sidebar.

3. Click the “Read” tab, and the page content is summarized automatically.

4. Type a follow-up question in the input box at the bottom:

Summarize the market size figures and growth rates mentioned in this article in English. Format them as “Source: [article title], [date]” so I can cite them in our company’s sales materials.

Scenario 2: Draft a reply to a customer email

1. Open the customer email in Gmail or Outlook on the web.

2. Drag to select the body of the customer email.

3. In the Sider popup, choose “Chat.”

4. In the sidebar input box, enter the following:

Write a reply to the customer email above. Keep the tone polite but professional. Include ① a thank-you for their inquiry, ② a specific response to their request, and ③ a proposed next step (scheduling a meeting). Use a standard business email format.

Scenario 3: Analyze a competitor’s website in real time

1. Open a competitor’s product page.

2. Check the automatic summary in the Sider “Read” tab.

3. Type a follow-up question:

Summarize the three key differentiators this product page emphasizes, along with its pricing policy. Then suggest which points we could use as selling points when comparing against our own product.

💡 If you copy the “Read” tab summary from Sider and paste it into NotebookLM as a source, you can compare the analyses of multiple competitor pages in a single notebook. This is how the three tools work together.

4. A workflow that connects all three tools

For maximum impact, chain the three tools together in order.

Recommended workflow

Step 1: Perplexity → First-pass research on the market, competitors, and client companies

Step 2: Sider → Instantly summarize and translate the web pages you find, right in the sidebar

Step 3: NotebookLM → Upload everything you have collected for in-depth analysis and report writing

A concrete example: preparing for a meeting with a new client:

1. In Perplexity, search for the client’s name, industry, and recent news, then save the results to a Collection (10 minutes).

2. Open the source links Perplexity provides, then use the Read tab in Sider to summarize each page (5 min).

3. Upload the summaries, your existing meeting notes, and the proposal PDF to a NotebookLM notebook (3 min).

4. Ask NotebookLM: “Summarize a sales strategy tailored to this client, along with the likely questions and answers.” (2 min)

Total time: about 20 minutes (about 70% less time than the manual approach)

5. Setup Completion Checklist

Make sure you have completed all of the items below:

• Perplexity: Sign-up complete, at least one work Collection created, AI Profile set up

• NotebookLM: Logged in with your Google account, one notebook created, and a test upload of at least three sources

• Sider: Chrome extension installed, pinned to the toolbar, shortcuts checked, Selection Popup ON

• Integration test: Run the Perplexity search → Sider summary → NotebookLM upload workflow once

💡 The free plans of all three tools are enough for real-world work. Try them for two weeks, and consider upgrading only if you run into query limits. Perplexity Pro ($20/month) and Sider Pro ($10/month) make the most noticeable difference.

6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. Is it safe to upload confidential company documents?

• NotebookLM: Google’s enterprise security policies apply. Google states that uploaded data is not used to train its models.

• Perplexity / Sider: What you type is sent to their servers, so we recommend not entering customer personal data, contract amounts, or unpublished financial data directly.

💡 Before entering sensitive information, replace proper nouns with placeholders such as “Company A” or “Customer B.” Once you have the analysis, swap the original names back in to reduce security risk.

Q. I only get English answers. How do I get Korean?

With all three tools, just add “Answer in Korean” to the end of your prompt. In Perplexity, you can also change the default output language under Settings → Language → Korean.

Q. If I had to pick just one of the three, which should it be?

• If search and research are your main focus: Perplexity

• If analyzing internal documents is the priority: NotebookLM

• If you work in the browser all day: Sider

That said, each of the three tools handles a different stage — search → analysis → real-time assistance — so they work best together. We encourage you to set up all three today.