A knowledge management tool captures, organizes, and surfaces information so teams can find what they need without endless searching or repetitive questions. Unlike a simple document repository, these platforms actively connect information across sources. For distributed teams, this is essential infrastructure.
Knowledge management tools fall into two broad categories.
Some platforms own your content, and they're where you create, store, and organize documents as well as wikis. Others layer intelligence on top of your existing tools, connecting and searching across platforms you already use. The right choice depends on whether you need a new system of record or a way to unify knowledge that already lives across your current stack.
The right knowledge management platform needs five core capabilities that work together:
Here are our top picks for knowledge management platforms:
Read AI is an AI assistant that works across meetings, emails, messages, and documents to build your personal knowledge graph. Unlike meeting notetakers that only capture one channel, Read AI connects information across your entire workflow.
The platform's cross-channel intelligence connects decisions to the interactions that prompted them and the follow-up discussions across messaging, documents, meetings, and email, delivering insights both when needed and proactively.
Key capabilities include:
Read AI integrates with 20+ platforms including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Gmail, Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion, and Confluence. Every interaction captured gets added to your personal knowledge graph, informing future searches, chats, and recommendations.
Read AI users attend 20% fewer meetings on average, with 33% fewer attendees per meeting. This happens through shared meeting reports and action items, transparency via Search Copilot, meeting scores that help you evaluate which meetings add value, proactive decline recommendations, and attendee engagement insights that suggest making low-engagement participants optional.
The platform is great for distributed teams that lose connection points across time zones, organizations managing knowledge across meetings and messaging platforms, and leaders who want to reduce meeting overhead without losing alignment.
Security controls span capture, transcription, storage, and retention with SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA compliance, keeping transcripts within your security perimeter while maintaining transparency and trust through user consent requirements and opt-out by default.
Glean provides enterprise search across your company's applications, connecting content from Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Salesforce, and dozens of other platforms.
The platform uses AI to understand context and relationships, delivering answers rather than just links. Glean learns from how your organization works, improving relevance based on organizational structure and collaboration patterns.
Glean targets large enterprises with complex technology stacks and significant search challenges. Implementation typically requires professional services engagement, and pricing reflects enterprise-scale deployments. Organizations with dedicated IT resources and substantial budgets get the most value from Glean's depth and customization capabilities.
Confluence integrates natively with Jira, Bitbucket, and Trello.
Organizations choose Confluence for its structured content types and template libraries that standardize processes across technical teams, particularly in DevOps environments where documentation lives alongside code.
The platform provides detailed permission controls and audit trails, making it the enterprise standard for technical knowledge management. Confluence works best for technical organizations with existing Atlassian investments needing enterprise-scale architecture and teams requiring tight integration between documentation and development workflows.
For organizations invested in Microsoft 365, SharePoint provides content management extending beyond knowledge management into document control, intranet services, and workflow automation.
Native Microsoft 365 integration, including Teams, Office, and Azure AD, reduces integration complexity while delivering compliance frameworks with retention policies, eDiscovery, and data loss prevention.
SharePoint's breadth creates complexity requiring significant configuration expertise. Organizations with dedicated SharePoint administrators and Microsoft-centric infrastructure get maximum value.
ServiceNow Knowledge Management targets organizations running ServiceNow for IT service management.
The platform automatically generates knowledge articles from resolved incidents, connecting knowledge management directly to incident response workflows.
AI-powered knowledge gap identification spots where documentation is missing, while contextual knowledge surfacing delivers relevant articles directly within incident workflows.
The tool is suitable for IT directors managing incident response and technical support teams with significant ServiceNow investments.
Guru differentiates through AI-powered knowledge verification and browser-based architecture.
The Chrome extension delivers knowledge at point-of-work through integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams, surfacing relevant information without switching contexts. The verification system assigns owners to knowledge cards and tracks freshness, addressing the problem of outdated documentation.
Guru fits organizations with browser-based workflows, distributed teams needing point-of-work access, and companies seeking AI-powered knowledge verification.
Bloomfire's AI-powered search works across multimedia formats, making it valuable for teams that capture knowledge beyond text.
The platform emphasizes social features including likes, comments, and follows that turn knowledge management into collaborative curation.
Bloomfire works for organizations heavy on video knowledge transfer, customer-facing teams needing multimedia asset management, and companies wanting social engagement patterns around knowledge sharing.
Zendesk Guide integrates knowledge management directly into customer service workflows.
When support agents handle tickets, relevant knowledge articles surface automatically, with analytics measuring ticket deflection.
This platform fits customer service organizations running Zendesk Support and teams needing multi-language knowledge base capabilities.
Notion prioritizes user experience and flexibility over enterprise governance, making it popular with teams that want workspace customization without heavyweight processes.
The platform combines wiki, project management, and database features in one flexible interface that teams can shape to their workflows.
Notion works for startups and small teams valuing flexibility over rigid governance and companies with strong self-governance cultures.
Document360 focuses specifically on knowledge base creation for both internal teams and external customers.
The platform provides structured article management, version control, and analytics measuring which content gets used and where gaps exist. The straightforward approach means faster deployment and clearer purpose.
Document360 fits technical writing teams creating product documentation and companies needing customer-facing knowledge bases.
Knowledge management works best when information flows to the people who need it, regardless of when or where they're working. The best tools don't just store files. They connect the dots between multiple discussions across tools.
Read AI builds this connected layer through Search Copilot, which answers natural language questions across all your platforms, and proactive agents like Monday Briefing that highlight priorities before your week begins. When a team member in another region needs context from yesterday's call, they get the full picture instantly.
Ready to see how this works for your team? Try Read AI for free.
A knowledge management tool helps teams find what they need without hunting through scattered files and threads. Unlike basic document storage, these platforms actively link related information.
When employees work across different regions, they can't tap someone on the shoulder for quick context. Knowledge management tools make decisions and reasoning accessible around the clock, so team members catch up instantly rather than waiting hours for an explanation.
Prioritize five capabilities: cross-platform intelligence that works across your entire tech stack, search that understands what you mean (not just exact keywords), automatic organization that doesn't require manual tagging, security controls with proper audit trails, and deep integrations with tools your team already uses daily.
Start by tracking how long people spend hunting for information before and after implementation. Monitor whether "what did we decide?" questions decrease in meetings, messaging platforms, and email, and watch for signs that the system becomes the default source of truth.
Document storage holds files in folders and waits for you to find them. Knowledge management tools actively surface relevant context based on what you're working on, connecting related information across platforms (including CRM and workflow systems) so you see the full picture without assembling it yourself.
Enterprise platforms often require weeks or months of configuration and professional services. Read AI takes a different approach: Search Copilot gets you started in about 20 minutes, with value compounding as you connect more data sources over time.
Disclaimer: Product features and capabilities change frequently. The information below reflects features available at the time of publication. Verify current capabilities on each vendor's website before making decisions.
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