AI Guidance

AI Guidance lets you tell the assistant how to answer in specific channels. Each guidance item has a title, some instruction text, and a list of channels. When the assistant answers a question in one of those channels, it gets your instruction text together with its other instructions.

Use AI Guidance to change how the assistant answers: the format, the tone, the language, or where it sends people for some topics.

Who can use AI Guidance

Users with the Admin or AI Performance Manager role can see, create, edit and delete AI Guidance. Other users do not see the page. See Users for how roles are assigned.

Where do I find AI Guidance?

In the sidebar, open the AI Performance section and click AI Guidance. You see the list of guidance items in your account.

Who can edit AI Guidance?

Users with the Admin or AI Performance Manager role. Both roles can do everything on this page: create, edit, assign channels and delete.

When should I use AI Guidance?

Use AI Guidance when you want the assistant to follow a rule every time it answers in a channel. For example:

• Always write something in a fixed format.
• Send people to a specific place for some topics.
• Answer in a specific language or tone.

To give the assistant new facts, add or update a knowledge source instead. Guidance tells the assistant how to answer. Knowledge sources give it what to answer from.

How do I change how the assistant answers a type of question?

Create an AI Guidance item:

1. Open AI Guidance and click Create AI Guidance.
2. Enter a Title. This is required. Use a name that says what the rule is, for example "Part number format".
3. Enter the AI Guidance Text. This is the instruction the assistant gets. You can use Markdown.
4. In Channels, select the channels where the guidance applies. You can search by channel name.
5. Click Create.

After you create it, the guidance page opens. The guidance applies to new answers in the selected channels. Answers that were already given do not change.

Examples

Part number format

When you give a part number, always write the full orderable part number
in the format XXX-1234-56, for example ABC-1234-01. Put each part number
in bold. Never shorten a part number.

Pricing questions

For questions about pricing, quotes or lead times, do not give a price.
Tell the user to contact their authorized distributor, and list the
distributors from our "Where to buy" page if you have them.

Answer language

Always answer in the same language as the question. If the question
mixes languages, use the language of most of the question.

Returns and repairs

If the user asks about returns, repairs or RMA numbers, explain that
they need to open a support ticket, and give them the link to the
support portal.

Tips for writing guidance

• Keep one rule per guidance item. It is easier to check and to change.
• Write short, direct instructions. Say when the rule applies, for example "For questions about pricing, ...".
• If a channel has more than one guidance item, the assistant gets all of them. Make sure they do not conflict.

Which channels does a guidance apply to?

A guidance item applies only to the channels selected in its Channels field. The Channels column in the list shows them. Click a channel name to open that channel.

If a guidance item has no channels, the list shows N/A. That guidance does not change any answers until you add a channel.

To change the channels:

1. Open the guidance item.
2. In Associated Channels, add or remove channels.
3. Click Save next to Associated Channels.

How do I edit or delete guidance?

Click a guidance item in the list to open it. The AI Guidance Information section shows its ID, name, type, version, channels, and the dates it was created and updated.

Below it, you can change three things. Each one has its own Save button:

Section	What you change
Name	The title of the guidance
Associated Channels	The channels where it applies
AI Guidance Text	The instruction the assistant gets (Markdown)

To delete a guidance item, click the delete button at the bottom of the page. In Delete Confirmation, click Delete. You cannot undo this.

The AI Guidance list

Column	Description
Name	The guidance title, with its ID
Type	How the guidance is applied
Version	The version number of the guidance item
Channels	The channels where it applies
Created	When it was created
Updated	When it was last changed

Use the Search AI Guidance... box to find an item. You can filter by Type and by date. The list shows the most recently updated items first.

Guidance you create on this page has the type Channel: it applies to every answer in its channels. You may also see other types in your list, such as Topic, Intent, Tool, Global or AI Guidance (legacy).

warning

Saving new text on a guidance item of another type changes it into Channel guidance. Talk to your ept AI contact before you edit items of other types.

How does guidance change the answers?

When a user asks a question in a channel, the assistant collects all the guidance for that channel. It adds the guidance text to its instructions for that answer. It still uses the channel's knowledge sources for the facts.

Guidance is an instruction, not a guarantee. Check the answers after you add or change guidance.

How do I check the effect of my guidance?

1. Ask a test question in a channel the guidance applies to, for example in AI Chat with that channel selected.
2. Open Responses. Filter by the channel and by a date range that starts after your change. Read the answers and check that they follow the guidance.
3. Open Conversations to read full threads, including follow-up questions.
4. Watch the user feedback on Responses. More thumbs down after a change can mean the guidance needs work.

If the assistant does not follow the guidance:

• Check that the guidance is assigned to the right channel.
• Make the instruction shorter and more specific.
• Check the other guidance on the same channel for rules that conflict.

Related Pages

• Responses: review the answers the assistant gave
• Conversations: read full conversation threads
• Channels: the channels you can assign guidance to
• Knowledge Sources: the content the assistant answers from