Set up Answer Desk in four steps

The Answer Desk > Start here screen lists four steps in the order they must happen. A bar shows how many are done, each finished step gets a tick, and the next one has its own button. When all four are done, the screen becomes the Overview.

The four steps

1. Connect an AI provider: click Choose the provider and follow Connect an AI provider.
2. Give it something to read: click Add documents and follow Add documents and site pages.
3. Build the index: click Build it and follow Build the index.
4. Switch it on: test first (below), then click Switch on in this step.

If you later edit an imported page or add documents, step 3 loses its tick and shows The index is out of date, and a notice with a Build the index link appears on the Answer Desk screens (and once on the Plugins list, where you can close it) until you build the index again. This does not switch the assistant off and does not block Switch on: the assistant keeps working, but it cannot find the new text by meaning yet.

Test it before visitors do

When the first three steps are done, a Try it card appears on Start here.

1. Type a question a customer would ask, for example "how long does the warranty last?".
2. Click Ask.
3. Read the answer and the list of extracts it used, each with a percentage showing how close it was to the question.

This uses your real documents and your real AI account, so each test costs what a real question costs. If an answer is wrong, check which extract it came from: usually the fix is a clearer document, not a different setting.

Switch it on

1. In step 4 of Start here, click Switch on. It becomes available once the first three steps are done.
2. You see The assistant is now running on your site. The screen is now called Overview and the top card says Running.
3. Open your site in a new tab: a chat button appears in the bottom right corner.

To take it off the site, click Switch off in the Running card at the top of the Overview. View your site, next to the title, opens your site in a new tab.

The numbers at the bottom

Start here (and later the Overview) also shows how many documents you have, how many passages are indexed, conversations this week and answers today. If the AI provider returned errors recently, a Recent problems card lists them, so you find out before a customer tells you.

What to do next

• Write what it says when it does not know: Choose how it answers.
• Match the chat to your site: Place and style the chat.
• Check the privacy settings: AI notice, privacy and limits.