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VentaroAI Readiness Check

Know Your Numbers · AI Knowledge Assistant

An AI knowledge base that answers questions from your own documents

Your policies, procedures, product details and past work, searchable in plain English. We set up an AI knowledge assistant over SharePoint, Google Drive or your files, so your team gets a sourced answer in seconds instead of asking around.

Take the AI Readiness CheckSee examples

Example

Your documents collected from SharePoint or Drive
Organised, cleaned and access rules applied
Assistant answers with links to the source
Gaps flagged and content kept up to date

AI + Experts + Your Data

Any one of these on its own falls short. Together they give you the speed of AI with answers you can trust.

AI

Does the heavy lifting

Finds and summarises the right answer in seconds.

EXPERT

Checks it's right

Organises your content and sets the rules for what it can use.

YOUR DATA

Keeps it grounded

Your own policies, files and know-how, with sources shown.

HOW IT WORKS

How it works, step by step

Here is a typical job, from the moment it arrives to the moment it is done. Watch it move through.

  1. 01Your documents collected from SharePoint or Drive
  2. 02Organised, cleaned and access rules applied
  3. 03Assistant answers with links to the source
  4. 04Gaps flagged and content kept up to date

Where it pays off

Real examples of where AI Knowledge Assistant pays off. Filter by the part of the business you care about.

ADMIN

Staff handbook assistant

Holiday, expenses and policy questions answered instantly, with the source page.

All sectors
SALES

Product and pricing answers

Sales and support find specs, prices and stock rules without digging.

EcommerceTrades and B2B
OPERATIONS

Procedures and how-tos

Step-by-step answers from your own process documents.

All sectors
SALES

Past proposals and case notes

Find how you answered a similar request last time.

Professional services
ADMIN

New starter onboarding

New people ask the assistant first and get up to speed faster.

All sectors
CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer-facing FAQ assistant

A version for your website that answers from approved content only.

All sectors

Start small. Prove it works. Then scale.

No big transformation projects. We find the one thing worth doing first, prove it with a pilot, then keep building month by month.

01 · 3 MINUTES

AI Readiness Check

Seven questions and a straight answer on whether AI fits your business yet.

02 · 1 DAY

1 Day Business Analysis

A day with your team to find the quickest wins. Free for a great fit.

03 · 2 TO 4 WEEKS

Pilot Build

One workflow built, tested and handed over, so you see it working first.

04 · MONTHLY

Monthly Support

Monitoring, training and the next build. Leave at the end of any month.

IN DEPTH

The detail, in 8 short parts

01 / 08

What Is an AI Knowledge Base?

An AI knowledge base is your company's own information, such as policies, procedures, product details, price lists and past work, connected to an AI assistant that can answer questions about it in plain language. Instead of hunting through folders or asking a colleague, your team types a question and gets an accurate answer with a link to the source.

A traditional knowledge base relies on people finding the right article through menus or keyword search results. If they use different words to the author, they miss it. An AI powered knowledge base understands natural language, so "how many days holiday do I get after five years?" finds the right line in the staff handbook even if the handbook never uses those words.

Behind the scenes, the AI models don't learn your files permanently. They look up the most relevant content each time a question is asked, then write a response based on what they found. That's why the answers stay grounded in your own documents rather than the wider internet.

02 / 08

How an AI Knowledge Assistant Works

Every AI knowledge assistant we set up follows the same core idea: AI, experienced people and your own data working together. The AI finds and summarises. People organise the content and set the rules. Your data makes the answers specific to your business.

1. Connect your knowledge sources

We connect the places your internal knowledge already lives: SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, shared folders, your help centre and, where useful, CRM systems. You don't need to upload documents one by one or move everything onto a single platform first. The assistant brings it together in one platform for searching, while files stay where they are.

2. Tidy and structure the content

Most businesses have a mix of structured content, like price lists and forms, and unstructured content, like long policy documents and email templates. We remove duplicates, flag outdated content and keep sensitive information out, so the assistant only works from verified information.

3. Set the rules and configuration instructions

We write the configuration instructions that tell the assistant how to behave: which sources to trust first, how to provide citations, what tone to use and what to say when it doesn't know. This context layer is what turns a general language model into a reliable assistant for your business.

4. Test, launch and keep it improving

We test it with real questions from your team, check every answer against the source, then launch it where people already work, often in Microsoft Teams or the browser. After launch, a simple feedback loop shows which answers helped and where knowledge gaps remain.

03 / 08

Custom GPT for Business, Claude Projects or Copilot?

There's no single best AI tool for documents. The right choice depends on what you already pay for and where your files live. We'll recommend one, explain why, and set it up properly.

A custom GPT for business, built in ChatGPT's business plans, works well for teams already using ChatGPT, with your documents and instructions attached. Claude Projects do a similar job for teams on Claude, and handle long documents well. Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot agents suit businesses whose files are already in SharePoint and OneDrive, because they respect your existing Microsoft permissions. For a customer-facing assistant on your website, dedicated knowledge base software or a help desk tool with AI features may be the better fit, especially if you also run help articles or community forums.

Some tools offer a free plan for individuals. For business use, we recommend a paid business tier that keeps your data out of model training and gives you admin controls. We'll show you the options and current plan costs before you decide.

  • Custom GPTs: quick to set up for teams already on ChatGPT.
  • Claude Projects: good with long policy documents and detailed procedures.
  • Microsoft Copilot: best when your files and permissions already live in Microsoft 365.
  • Website assistants: a separate, customer-facing version that answers from approved content only.
04 / 08

Chat With Your Documents: Where It Helps Most

Being able to chat with your documents saves time anywhere people repeatedly ask the same questions or dig for the same files. Here is a short, complete guide to where SMEs usually start.

  • HR and policy questions: holiday, expenses, sickness and benefits, answered from your handbook.
  • Sales and product questions: specs, prices, delivery rules and stock policies.
  • Operations and how-tos: step-by-step troubleshooting guides and procedures.
  • Internal IT help: common queries like password resets and setting up new kit.
  • Bids and proposals: how you answered a similar question last time.
  • Customer self service: a website assistant that answers common queries and passes anything tricky to a human agent.

Faster answers for staff and customers

Quick answers mean fewer interruptions for the people who always get asked, and fewer support tickets for the things customers could answer themselves. For customer-facing assistants, we track resolution rates so you can see how many questions it handles without a person.

PDF AI and long documents

PDF AI tools let you ask questions of a single long file, which is handy for contracts, manuals and tenders. A proper AI knowledge base goes further: it searches all your documents at once and tells you which one the answer came from.

05 / 08

Keeping Knowledge Quality High

An AI knowledge base is only as good as the knowledge base content behind it. If the documents are wrong or out of date, the answers will be too. That's why knowledge management matters as much as the AI.

We help you name an owner for each area of content, usually the subject matter experts who already know it best, and agree how content updates happen. When a policy changes, the owner knows to update content in the source document, and the assistant picks it up from there. Version history in SharePoint or Google Drive means you can always see what changed and when.

Finding content gaps

Every question the assistant can't answer is useful. We report the questions people ask that have no good source, so you can fill the content gaps that matter most. Over time this improves knowledge quality across the business, not just inside the AI.

Continuous improvement through usage data

Our monthly support, from £750 a month, includes simple data analysis of what people ask, which answers were rated helpful and where existing content needs work, plus key insights on what your team most needs to know. It's a light way to maintain content and keep ensuring relevance without a full-time knowledge manager.

06 / 08

AI Knowledge Base vs AI Agents

An AI knowledge base answers questions. AI agents go further and take action, such as updating a record or drafting and sending a reply. Many businesses start with a knowledge assistant because it's low risk and quick to prove, then connect it to agents later.

When that happens, the knowledge base becomes the trusted source the agents rely on. Getting your AI knowledge in order first makes every later AI project more accurate, and gives people better information for decision making.

07 / 08

Data Safety, Permissions and Sensitive Information

Your documents stay yours. We respect existing permissions, so people only get answers from files they're already allowed to see. Sensitive folders, such as HR records, payroll and client files, are kept out unless you decide otherwise.

We use business-grade tools that don't train on your data, follow UK GDPR principles and keep a clear record of which sources the assistant can use. Data for our own tools is hosted in the UK. Where the assistant uses external sources or links to external systems, we agree that with you up front.

08 / 08

Costs, Timescales and Getting Started

Most AI knowledge assistants start as a pilot, from £1,500 over 2 to 4 weeks, covering one area such as the staff handbook or product information. Monthly support from £750 a month covers content updates, improvements and new areas. Tool subscriptions are paid to the provider and depend on the number of users and the plan you choose.

We work with SMEs of 1 to 250 people across the whole UK, from our base in Rainford, St Helens. The easiest first step is the AI Readiness Check: seven quick questions that show whether a knowledge assistant is the right place to start.

FAQ

Common questions

Which tools do you use?

Usually custom GPTs, Claude Projects or Microsoft Copilot, depending on what you already pay for.

Will people see documents they shouldn't?

No. We respect your existing permissions and keep sensitive folders out.

What if the answer isn't in our documents?

It says so, rather than guessing, and flags the gap so someone can fill it.

What is the knowledge base system in AI?

It's the collection of trusted documents an AI assistant looks up before it answers. The AI finds the relevant information, then writes an answer based only on that content, with the source shown.

Does ChatGPT have a knowledge base?

Not of your business by default. You can give it one through a custom GPT or project with your documents attached, ideally on a business plan with admin controls.

Which AI is best with documents?

It depends on where your files live. Copilot suits Microsoft 365 businesses, custom GPTs suit ChatGPT users and Claude Projects handle long documents well. We'll recommend one for your setup.

Can I create my own custom GPT?

Yes, on most ChatGPT plans. The hard part is choosing and tidying the right documents, writing good instructions and testing the answers, which is where we help.

What should we not put into an AI assistant?

Keep out passwords, payroll, health records and anything you wouldn't want every user to see. We agree a list of excluded folders before setup.

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