The same questions, asked again and again
In most businesses, a few people hold a lot of the know-how. They are the ones colleagues turn to when they cannot remember how to process a refund, which template to use for a quote or what the policy is on holiday carry-over. The answers usually exist somewhere, in a handbook, a shared drive or an old email, but finding them takes longer than asking. So people ask, and the experts spend a good part of every day being interrupted.
New starters feel this most. They have a hundred questions in their first few weeks and do not want to keep bothering the same colleague. Meanwhile, the documents that should help them are scattered across folders with names that only made sense to whoever created them.
An AI knowledge assistant gives your team one place to ask. It answers questions using your own documents, processes and FAQs, in plain English, and points to where the answer came from. Your experts get time back, and everyone else gets answers in seconds.
What the assistant does
Answers built on your own documents
We connect the assistant to the material you choose: process guides, policies, product information, price lists, templates and FAQs, usually held in SharePoint or Google Drive. It answers from that material rather than from general knowledge on the internet.
Answers to everyday staff questions
Team members ask questions the way they would ask a colleague, such as “how do I set up a new supplier?” or “what is our returns window?”, and get a clear answer.
Support for new starters
New team members can ask the basic questions they might feel awkward asking a person, at any time, and get consistent answers while they find their feet.
Process lookups
Step-by-step instructions for common tasks, set out in order, so people can follow along while they work.
Drafting from approved templates
The assistant can help draft emails, letters and documents using your approved templates and wording, ready for a person to check and send.
Links back to the source
Every answer includes a link to the document it came from, so people can check the detail and trust what they are reading.
Regular content updates
When documents change, the assistant’s knowledge is refreshed, so it does not keep giving out last year’s process.
Example workflow. This shows the kind of thing we build. It is not a client result.
Before: a customer asks for a refund. The team member handling it is not sure of the steps, so they message the office manager and wait for a reply, while the customer waits too.
After: the team member asks the assistant in Microsoft Teams, “how do I process a refund?”. It replies with the five steps from the refunds process document, notes the approval limit that applies and links to the full document in SharePoint. The refund is handled in minutes, and the office manager is not interrupted.
Where the answers come from
The assistant works from the documents you give it access to and is set up to say when it cannot find an answer, rather than guessing. That is why the links to sources matter: they let people check the detail for themselves. AI tools can still occasionally get things wrong, so we test the assistant with a long list of real questions from your team before it goes live, fix the gaps we find and keep reviewing it after launch. For anything with serious consequences, the assistant points people to the right person rather than giving the final word.
Access and settings
You decide which documents the assistant can use and who in your business can use it. Where different teams should see different information, we can set up separate assistants or restrict sources accordingly. We use business accounts and settings on platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude or Microsoft Copilot, and we explain the options in plain English so you can choose the setup that suits how you work. We also help you write a short AI usage policy so your team knows what the assistant is for.
Where your team will use it
The best assistant is the one people can reach without thinking about it. For businesses on Microsoft 365, that often means Microsoft Teams or Copilot. For others, it might be a custom GPT in ChatGPT, a project in Claude, or a simple chat page linked from your intranet. We will suggest the option that fits your existing tools and habits.
Keeping it useful
An assistant is only as good as the documents behind it. Building one often shows up gaps, such as processes that were never written down or guides that are out of date. We will flag these and help you fill the most important ones. After launch, we look at the questions people ask, spot the ones the assistant struggles with and improve its content over time.
Which package fits
Knowledge assistants are part of AI Partner (from £2,500/month, 3-month minimum), which includes automations and assistants built and maintained for you, a priority AI helpline and a monthly AI opportunity review.
If you want to understand what an assistant would involve first, AI Kickstart (£495 one-off) will look at your documents and the questions your team asks most.
Bring the questions your team asks every week to a free consultation call, and we will show you how an assistant could answer them.