I don’t start by connecting the whole archive

When a company considers a private AI assistant on its documentation, the first thing I ask for is a list of the questions its team asks every week: doubts that today mean searching for a document or interrupting a colleague. With that list it quickly becomes clear whether the answer is documented and still current.

For a first version I would choose one department’s procedures and a small group of users. That shows what works far better than connecting every repository at once.

What “private” means in your case

“Private” is a reassuring word, but it needs to be made concrete: who can access it, which documents each person sees, where queries are processed and how long they are kept. Having your own interface or a dedicated server doesn’t mean the model runs inside the company. Queries are often processed by an external provider.

That isn’t a problem in itself. I document which services are involved and under what conditions, to confirm they meet your company’s requirements.

Every source needs an owner

Before integrating anything you need to define the valid version of each source and who maintains it. If there are three copies of the same procedure, the assistant can’t know which prevails. I also wouldn’t mix approved documentation with drafts or unreviewed minutes, because they would end up in answers as if they were instructions.

The same applies to permissions. A document being protected in its repository doesn’t guarantee the integrated system respects that. It has to be verified in the search index and in the passages and logs that are stored.

How I validate it

I prepare questions whose answer I already know and others the documentation doesn’t resolve. I also test with users of different profiles, to confirm nobody receives information they shouldn’t. Ideally someone who knows the documentation well reviews the answers.

When an answer fails, I identify the cause: the document may be missing, search may have picked the wrong passage or the model may have added a conclusion the source doesn’t contain. Each cause is fixed differently. If a question is ambiguous, I prefer the assistant to ask for clarification rather than guess.

Evolving with use

During the pilot I record which questions recur and where information is missing. Many improvements aren’t technical: they consist of writing or updating documentation that was out of date. I would only add new collections once it is clear who maintains them and who can consult them.

If you are considering an assistant on your company’s documentation, here is how I work, or book a meeting and we’ll look at your case.