Citations
Show the document or record behind important statements so a person can verify them.
Private knowledge assistants
Answers grounded in your approved information.
A private knowledge assistant helps staff find and use information from the documents and systems the business has approved. It should answer with evidence, respect access rules, and say when the available information is not enough.
Grounding
01Find the source before writing the answer.
The assistant searches approved material for the most relevant passages, then uses those passages to prepare a response. This pattern is called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG. The plain purpose is simple: base the answer on current business information instead of model memory alone. For a larger team, the same foundation can provide enterprise search across approved sources.
Permissions
Apply the same document and role boundaries that govern the source information.
Current information
Define how updated policies, product details, and operating material enter the searchable source set.
Judgment
02Know when not to answer.
Confidence rules and escalation paths matter as much as search quality. If sources conflict, are outdated, or do not support a reliable answer, the assistant should say so and direct the question to a person or another system.
Improvement
03Evaluate the questions people actually ask.
Feedback and evaluations reveal missed sources, weak citations, permission errors, and unclear responses. Those findings improve both the assistant and the underlying information people depend on.