By Artem Korsakov ·
A new manager needs to know what data to gather for a commercial proposal. The information is in the internal procedure, but an old file and correspondence with an exception for one client lie nearby. If you give the assistant everything at once, it may mix rules from different periods. Preparing sources becomes part of the implementation.
How to prepare an internal knowledge base
Select one area: proposal preparation, service terms, or the procedure for internal requests. Each document must have an owner, an actual version, and a clear audience.
For a pilot, a small verified set is more useful than a large unstructured archive. Remove duplicates, mark outdated materials, and separate general rules from individual agreements. If employees themselves argue over which instruction is correct, the process owner's answer is needed first.
Separately compile questions that the selected documents should not answer. For example, a general instruction does not confirm a personal discount nor report warehouse stock levels.
Подпись: Illustrative example of selecting materials for the "Proposal Preparation" section. Only the approved version goes into the knowledge base; exceptions for individual clients and prices remain in their respective systems.
How to organize document search
Employees benefit from a concise answer and a link to the specific material or fragment. They must be able to open the source and verify the context.
In a hypothetical scenario, a manager asks what is needed for the first calculation. The assistant lists the source data from the internal procedure and points to its section. If the documents do not contain requirements for deadlines, they cannot be supplemented by a fictional company policy.
Search within corporate files is supported by ready-made tools, such as File Search in Yandex AI Studio (a Russian cloud AI platform). Connecting a tool does not cancel the verification of answers or the preparation of documents themselves.
How to organize access
It is easier to start with materials approved for the entire pilot group. Different access levels increase workload volume. Hiding a link in the interface is insufficient: restrictions must already apply during search.
Check several situations:
- an employee asks about a document from their department;
- another user asks the same question without the necessary access;
- a document is deleted or replaced;
- a user attempts to retrieve content from a closed source;
- the document itself contains text resembling instructions for the assistant.
If you cannot confirm segmentation on the chosen platform, closed materials are not included in the pilot. The volume of rights verification is agreed upon before connecting data.
Who supports actuality
Appoint a knowledge base owner. They approve new versions and are responsible for excluding old rules. It is necessary to determine when an updated file becomes available to the assistant and how to ensure that the old version is no longer used.
It is useful to collect unanswered questions and error reports. Sometimes it requires fixing the source, sometimes changing search settings. Adding another document without analyzing the cause does not always help.
What a good assistant answer looks like
A hypothetical manager asks: "What data to request for a service proposal?" A useful answer lists the points of the approved internal procedure, indicates its name, version, and section. The employee opens the source and checks whether the rule applies to this type of service.
If the source speaks only about equipment, the assistant does not add a fictional prepayment condition. If a new version contradicts an old one, the question is transferred to the knowledge base owner. The version selection rule is set by the company. The file upload date itself does not prove that the document was approved later than others.
Подпись: Illustrative example. The answer is compiled from the approved internal procedure, indicating the section. Conditions not in the internal procedure are not added by the assistant.
What questions to include in acceptance testing
Questions with obvious answers make up only part of the verification. Ask about a discount not in the internal procedure; about an action from a canceled instruction; about a document from another department; about two similar products. Add a question where the employee erroneously states a rule: "True, we always refund money for days?" The assistant answers based on materials and does not agree with the incorrect formulation.
For each check, record the expected source, permissible answer, and reason for transferring to a human. Check updates separately: an updated instruction must enter search according to the agreed procedure, and a withdrawn one must stop influencing new answers.
The first version may serve one department and one knowledge section. Usefulness is visible through the time to a verified answer, the number of incorrect links, and repeated appeals to mentors. If answers sound confident, but employees search for everything anew every time, the problem is not yet solved. The history of unanswered questions will help understand which materials truly need to be written.
Compare with the search used by the team
For evaluation, take the same working questions and measure the time to a verified answer in the usual way: via folders, search, or mentors. If the relevant section is found quickly anyway, the assistant must demonstrate additional utility, such as collecting an answer from several actual documents. A convenient chat that does not accelerate work cannot be considered a result.
trike_dev can analyze one knowledge area, prepare a pilot scenario, and evaluate the assistant setup. See AI support for company materials: internal application and access are clarified separately. For an external assistant, there is an article on AI tasks on the website.
Related reading: Implementing AI in business: how to test one task in a pilot; Automation support: what is needed after launch.
Частые вопросы ### Is it necessary to train your own model?
For searching a limited set of documents, a ready-made model and source search are often used. The specific method is chosen after verifying the task and constraints.
Can all company folders be connected?
Such volume is first evaluated by content, access rights, and updates. For the initial launch, it is better to agree on one verified area.