What to give your AI assistant so it answers well

Think of an AI assistant as a new member of staff on their first day. They're quick, polite and they never get tired. But they only know what you've told them. Ask them about your refund policy before anyone has explained it, and they'll either say they don't know or, if they're badly trained, guess.

Most disappointing answers come from that gap. The good news is that filling it isn't hard, and most of the material already exists.

Start with your website

Your own pages are the best starting point. They're already written for customers, already approved, and they're what visitors see anyway. Add your main pages first:

• Home page and About page
• Each service or product page
• Prices
• Contact, opening hours and location
• FAQ, if you have one
• Delivery, returns, cancellation and booking policies

If something important lives only in a PDF (a menu, a brochure, a price list) or a Word document (terms, a welcome pack), add those too.

Then write down what lives in your head

Every business has knowledge that's never been written down because "everyone knows it". Ask the people who answer the phone what they get asked, and write the answers down. Typical examples:

• Do you have parking? Is there step-free access?
• Can I bring my dog, my kids, my own wine?
• How far in advance do I need to book?
• What areas do you cover? Do you charge for travel?
• Do you do gift vouchers?
• What happens if I'm running late?

A plain list of questions and answers on one page is enough. Write the answers the way you'd say them to a customer: short, specific, friendly. These answers make your website better as well, which helps you get found in search and in AI answers (see SEO, AEO and GEO explained).

Be specific

Vague source material makes vague answers. Compare:

• "We offer competitive pricing on all our services." The assistant can't do anything useful with that.
• "A standard end-of-tenancy clean for a two-bedroom flat is £180. Ovens are £45 extra." Now it can answer the question people actually ask.

The same goes for times ("we usually reply within one working day" instead of "we reply promptly") and areas ("within 15 miles of Leeds city centre" instead of "the local area").

Fill in the basic facts

Beyond pages and documents, the assistant needs a small set of facts it can rely on: your business name, what you do, where you are, how to reach you, your hours, and what makes you different. A tidy business profile with these facts in one place means the assistant doesn't have to piece them together from five different pages, which is where mistakes creep in.

Leave out what you don't want repeated

Anything you give the assistant, it may tell a visitor. So leave out:

• Internal notes, staff names and rotas you'd rather not share
• Old price lists and expired offers
• Draft pages and half-finished plans
• Anything private about customers

If two documents say different things, fix one or remove it. An assistant faced with two prices will either pick one or hedge, and neither is what you want.

Keep it fresh

Your business changes: new prices, new opening hours over Christmas, a service you've stopped offering. The assistant needs to change with it.

• When you update your website, the assistant should pick up the change. Check that yours re-reads your pages regularly, not just once.
• Replace documents when they change, rather than adding a new version next to the old one.
• Put a note in your calendar to review the assistant's material every few months.

Test it like a customer

Once it's set up, ask it the questions your customers ask. Try awkward ones too:

• Something you know the answer to but never wrote down
• A question with a slightly unusual twist ("Can I book for 9 people?" when your limit is 8)
• Something it shouldn't know at all

Every weak answer tells you exactly what to add. After a week of real visitors, read the chats and do the same. Within a few rounds, the answers get noticeably better.

The short version

1. Add your website pages.
2. Add the PDFs and documents customers would find useful.
3. Write down the questions you answer every week, with specific answers.
4. Fill in your basic business facts in one place.
5. Remove anything outdated, contradictory or private.
6. Test, read the chats, fill the gaps, repeat.

In Pixexl, you add your pages, PDFs and Word files as the assistant's knowledge, and fill in a business profile next to them. A readiness check highlights what's missing, each section by section, and your pages and files are checked every week so the assistant stays current. See everything that's included on the services page.