Search over company knowledge
Manuals, contracts and policies are spread across drives and an old intranet. We build a system in the client’s cloud that answers from the current document, cites the page and respects the access rights people already have.
The problem
The current version of a policy or a manual is hard to find. Files sit in shared drives, in mail and in an old intranet, so people ask colleagues instead.
A chatbot pointed at “all the files” would make this worse. It would answer from a draft, from a superseded contract or from a folder the person is not allowed to read. The job is larger than one agent: it needs ingestion, access control, citations and a way to know an answer is wrong before anyone relies on it.
What we build
A production system in the client’s cloud.
- Ingest. Documents are collected from the sources the company already trusts. Each file keeps its source, its date and its access list.
- Prepare. Text is extracted, split and indexed. A superseded document is marked, and the search prefers the current one.
- Ask. A person asks in plain language. The answer cites the document and the place in it. If the sources disagree, the answer says so.
- Access. A person sees only what they could already open in the source system.
- Evaluate. Before launch, a set of real questions from the staff is scored: did the answer cite the right source? The set is kept and run again when the index or the model changes.
- Hand over. Documentation, a runbook and a named owner on the client side.
How it runs
- The system is deployed in the client’s cloud account.
- Models are called through the client’s provider agreement, or an open model is hosted in their network when they require that.
- Logs show the question, the sources used and the answer. Retention follows the client’s policy.
- A person reviews an answer before it is sent outside the company or used in a compliance decision.
What the client gets
- A production system, with documentation.
- Citations on every answer, and a visible signal when the source is old.
- An evaluation set built from their own questions.
- Handover or ongoing support, as agreed.
The result
Staff ask a question and get an answer with the document and the location. They can tell when a source is out of date, and access matches the permissions they already had.