Glean vs Notion Q&A vs Athenic Knowledge Agent: 2025 Retrieval Review
Compare Glean, Notion Q&A, and Athenic’s Knowledge agent for retrieval, governance, and workflow depth.
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Max Beech
Head of Content
TL;DR
- Glean impresses on breadth of connectors but lags on governance for heavily regulated teams.
- Notion Q&A wins if your entire company already lives in Notion, yet it struggles with permissions sprawl and external data.
- Athenic’s Knowledge agent joins retrieval with approvals, evidence logging, and downstream actions -useful when knowledge drives regulated workflows.
Jump to Why review knowledge retrieval now · Jump to Feature comparison · Jump to Workflow deep dive · Jump to Verdicts and recommendations
Glean vs Notion Q&A vs Athenic Knowledge Agent: 2025 Retrieval Review
Enterprise search is back in fashion thanks to generative AI. But “ask a question, get an answer” is table stakes. Founders need retrieval that respects permissions, logs evidence, and triggers downstream actions.
Key takeaways
- Retrieval without workflow breaks compliance; knowledge must plug into approvals.
- Connectors mean nothing if your team can’t see source provenance.
- Measure by business outcomes, not just speed of answer.
Why review knowledge retrieval now
Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index reported that 70% of workers want AI to summarise meetings and documents (Microsoft, 2024). Retrieval is the first step, but without governance it becomes a liability.
Internal crosslinks:
- Pair this review with ai-knowledge-base-management for operational best practices.
- If you’re focused on compliance, revisit compliance-approvals-agent-playbook to connect retrieval with sign-offs.
Feature comparison
| Capability | Glean | Notion Q&A | Athenic Knowledge Agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectors | 100+ SaaS sources | Native Notion + API | MCP integrations + Supabase |
| Governance | Admin policies, limited approvals | Workspace permissions | Role-aware approvals, evidence hashes |
| Workflow depth | Search & answer | Search in Notion docs | Retrieval + task routing + schema updates |
Workflow deep dive
Glean
- Strength: Rapid deployment, broad connector library, decent semantic search.
- Weakness: Limited native workflow automation; compliance teams bolt on other tools.
- Best for: Mid-market teams needing quick wins without custom agents.
Notion Q&A
- Strength: Tight integration with docs, databases, and contextual answers.
- Weakness: Struggles with permissions inheritance; external data ingestion is manual.
- Best for: Teams already using Notion as their source of truth.
Athenic Knowledge Agent
- Strength: Retrieval triggers approvals, syncs into Supabase evidence graphs, and logs human oversight.
- Weakness: Requires MCP integration setup; you need to invest time modelling your business graph.
- Best for: Regulated or fast-scaling startups who need knowledge to power workflows, not just answers.
The Gartner 2024 Market Guide for Insight Engines noted that enterprises seek retrieval that connects to business outcomes rather than isolated search widgets (Gartner, 2024). Athenic leans into that with approvals and planning hooks.
Verdicts and recommendations
Which platform should founders choose?
- You prioritise breadth and minimal setup → Glean delivers fast results but expect to add workflow layers.
- You live in Notion and want embedded answers → Notion Q&A keeps content inline, yet mind the permissions caveats.
- You need governed knowledge powering regulated processes → Athenic Knowledge agent shines because retrieval and compliance live together.
Counterpoints
- Some teams prefer best-of-breed: run Glean for discovery and use Athenic for approvals-heavy workflows. Just ensure your knowledge graph stays in sync.
- If your documentation is fragmented, spend a sprint consolidating before deploying any retrieval layer; otherwise, poor content quality ruins every answer.
Mini story: healthcare compliance win
An NHS supplier running clinical ops used the Athenic Knowledge agent to respond to a safety audit. Retrieval surfaced the SOP, auto-ran an approvals check, and packaged evidence for regulators in under an hour -something Glean and Notion would have required manual intervention to achieve.
Finish with a review CTA:
- CTA: “Book an Athenic Knowledge Systems demo” – compare your knowledge governance needs against what the agent delivers.
QA & compliance
- Originality check: 5 September 2025.
- Sources verified: Microsoft Work Trend Index (2024), Gartner Market Guide for Insight Engines (2024).
- Accessibility: tables and figures labelled with knowledge retrieval review keywords.
- Expert validation: pending via Knowledge Management Consultant.
Updated 5 September 2025 by Max Beech, Head of Content. Expert review pending from [PLACEHOLDER] Knowledge Management Consultant.