When most people hear “AI research tool,” they assume it only works with text documents. Upload a PDF, get a summary. That’s the limit of what they expect.

NotebookLM goes a lot further than that — and the source types it accepts are exactly what makes it useful for the way Malaysian SME owners actually work. We don’t just deal in PDFs. We deal in webinar recordings, vendor training videos, government briefings, scanned forms, and links we bookmark and never get back to.

NotebookLM was built for exactly that kind of mess.

The 6 Source File Types NotebookLM Accepts

You can feed NotebookLM information in six different formats, and it treats all of them as grounded source material — meaning it only answers based on what you’ve given it, not on general internet knowledge.

1. PDF The obvious one. Reports, contracts, compliance guidelines, ebooks — anything in document form.

2. Audio Upload a recording — a meeting, a voice memo, a recorded call — and NotebookLM can process the spoken content as a source.

3. Image Photos of whiteboards, scanned documents, screenshots of slides — NotebookLM can read and use visual content too.

4. Website Paste a URL and NotebookLM pulls in the page content as a source, no copy-pasting required.

5. Google Drive Connect directly to your Google Docs or Drive files instead of downloading and re-uploading them.

6. YouTube video And this is the one that changed how I personally use the tool.

Why the YouTube Video Source Is the Most Underrated Feature

Most SME owners I know have a graveyard of “watch later” videos. A 90-minute webinar on SST compliance. A vendor’s onboarding training video. A conference talk someone shared in a WhatsApp group three weeks ago that you still haven’t opened.

With NotebookLM, you don’t have to watch any of it start to finish.

Paste the YouTube link in as a source, and NotebookLM processes the full content of the video. From there, you can ask direct questions — “What are the three main compliance changes mentioned?” or “What does the speaker say about pricing?” — and get answers pulled straight from that video’s content, without scrubbing back and forth trying to find the part you half-remember.

For a founder running a lean team, this is real time back. Knowledge that used to sit locked inside an hour-long video — knowledge you genuinely needed but never had time to extract — becomes something you can pull out in minutes.

How Malaysian SME Owners Can Use This in Practice

A few ways this fits into the way SMEs here actually operate:

• Compliance updates. LHDN or MyInvois webinars are often long and dense. Drop the video in, ask NotebookLM to summarise what’s actually relevant to your business.
• Vendor and software training. Instead of sitting through a full onboarding video again to find one setting, ask NotebookLM directly.
• Conference and webinar content. If your team shares recorded talks or industry sessions, build a shared notebook so the knowledge doesn’t disappear into someone’s inbox.
• Competitor or market research. Industry YouTube channels, panel discussions, and product walkthroughs all become searchable source material instead of passive watch time.

A Practical Starting Point

If you’ve never tried this, start small. Pick one video you’ve been meaning to watch but haven’t — a webinar, a training session, anything sitting in your “watch later” list — and add it as a source in NotebookLM. Ask it one specific question you actually need answered. That’s usually enough to see why this feature is worth building into your routine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to watch the video first before NotebookLM can process it?

No. NotebookLM processes the video’s content directly once you add the link — you can go straight to asking questions.

Does the YouTube video need captions or subtitles?

Generally, yes. If the video has auto-generated or manually added captions, NotebookLM can process it. Videos with no captions at all may not process well.

Can I add private or unlisted YouTube videos?

The video link needs to be accessible — public or unlisted videos with a shareable link generally work. Fully private videos restricted to specific accounts typically won’t.

Is NotebookLM free to use?

Yes, there’s a free tier that’s generous enough for everyday SME use, covering most of what’s described in this article.

How is this different from just asking ChatGPT about a YouTube video?

NotebookLM is built to work only from the sources you provide — it doesn’t blend in outside information the way general AI assistants can. For something like a compliance briefing, that grounded accuracy matters more than it might for casual use.

Can NotebookLM process videos in Bahasa Malaysia?

It depends on the captions available on the video. If the YouTube captions are accurate, NotebookLM can generally work with non-English content, though English-language processing tends to be more reliable at this stage.

Is this useful if I only run a small team?

If anything, it’s more useful. Smaller teams don’t have the bandwidth to re-watch long videos or assign someone to “go through this and summarise it.” NotebookLM does that work for you in minutes.