How the term is used here In this channel's material, thinking boxes show up when Notion cofounder Simon Last describes how the building blocks of knowledge software — databases, UI, and permissions — combine with AI. The term refers to the places in a knowledge product where the model gets room to work through a problem on the user's behalf, woven into the interface rather than bolted on as a chat window. Why it matters for product builders The framing connects to a broader point from the same conversation: designing an LLM-friendly interface is central to shipping AI software at scale, because stochastic behavior needs evaluation and surfaces that make the model's work legible to users. Thinking boxes are one way those surfaces manifest in a real product serving hundreds of millions of users. - Thinking boxes are Notion's pattern for embedding AI reasoning inside its existing knowledge-software primitives (databases, UI, permissions).