AI Search lets you find tasks, projects, docs, and other objects and content within them while using a plain-language description. You don't need to know the exact name of what you're looking for — you can describe it, and the Assistant will search across Productive to find the best matches.
👉 To learn what else the AI Assistant can do beyond search — such as taking actions, summarizing content, or updating records — see Productive's AI Assistant.
Productive AI is available on all subscription plans and is free to use.
Important: AI features are subject to usage limits per user to ensure stable performance and fair use, which may evolve over time; if a limit is reached, some AI features may be temporarily unavailable—contact support if you need additional access.
Enabling AI Search
AI Search is part of the Productive AI features. To use it, Productive AI must be enabled in your organization's settings by an admin.
To activate Productive AI:
Go to Settings > Productive AI
Toggle Turn on AI
Once enabled, all available AI features, including AI Search, are added to the organization.
What You Can Search
Search across your entire organization for objects such as:
Projects
Tasks
People
Companies
Docs
📌 AI Search also considers the content inside objects — for example, you can ask the Assistant to find a doc and summarize its meeting notes in the same prompt.
📌 Search results are limited to objects you have permission to access. For example, if you do not have access to the specific project, tasks and docs from that project won't appear in search results.
How to Run a Search
You can start AI Search from two places.
From the AI Assistant sidebar:
Click the AI Assistant icon in the upper left.
Type your prompt in the chat input — use a keyword, a partial name, or a plain-language description.
Press Enter or click Send.
From the Quick search:
Open Quick Search from the main navigation, or use the keyboard shortcut:
Mac: CMD + K
Windows / Linux: CTRL + ALT + S
Type a query or prompt.
Select Search with AI Assistant suggestion when it appears.
👉 For more information on Quick search, see the article Search Options.
Example queries:
Find docs about onboarding new clients.
Tasks mentioning the kickoff meeting.
Show all open tasks assigned to me.
The Assistant returns matching results with a link to the matching objects. You can then ask it to pull out specific content or take additional actions from there.
Search Tips
The more specific your query, the better the results. Here are a few ways to phrase prompts that work well:
Specify the object location when you know it — Including the object location helps narrow the results.
Tasks in the Website Redesign project about QA.
Meeting notes in kickoff doc from March 2026.
Docs from the Website redesign project.
Use "about," "related to," or "contains" — Useful when the exact name doesn't match what you're searching for.
Docs related to SOC2.
Tasks about rate card updates.
Docs that contain 'SLA'.
Add a time hint — Narrows results when you remember roughly when something happened or was created.
Kickoff notes from last week.
Tasks created in February.
Tasks updated this month.
Combine search with an action — You can ask the Assistant to search and do something with the results in one prompt.
Search for tasks about design and assign them to me.
Find the doc with 'SLA' and summarize what it says.
Show open tasks for this month and list their due dates.
📌 If the results aren't right, follow up. Describe what's missing or ask the Assistant to adjust — you don't need to start over.
Your Data and AI Training
Productive does not use your Customer Data or allow third-party providers to use it to train the machine learning models that power the Productive AI.
Your use of Productive AI does not grant Productive any rights or licenses to use your Customer Data to train machine learning models.
AI Disclaimer
Productive AI results are provided "as-is". While AI technologies strive for accuracy, their outputs should be independently verified before making any critical decisions.
Productive's Trust Center
For terms and conditions, data privacy details, and security information, visit Productive's Trust Center.
Have questions about Productive AI? Contact our support team via chat. ☎️