Ask AI Manage: Configure settings and knowledge base

Here is a comprehensive guide to the Ask AI Manage tab, where you build the "brain" and "brand" of your assistant. Learn how to customize the Appearance, upload and sync data in the Knowledge Base, set up Fallback Replies, test your bot in Preview Mode, and manage team permissions in User Management.

In this Article

• Appearance tab
  • Appearance > Chat style
  • Appearance > Conversation
  • Appearance > Widget bubble
  • Appearance > Feedback form 
• Knowledge tab 
  • Knowledge > Data sources
    • Add more knowledge > Website
    • Add more knowledge > File import
      • Guidelines for uploading knowledge via file import 
      • Supported file types table
    • Add more knowledge > Priority Q&A
    • Manage your knowledge
      • Edit source window 
      • Manually sync on-demand
  • Knowledge > Knowledge analysis
    • Run knowledge analysis
    • View report
    • Export report
    • Re-run report
  • Knowledge > Fallback replies
    • Learn more about how Fallbacks work
    • Configure your Fallback replies
  • Knowledge > Priority Q&A
• Test & Launch tab
  • Preview and push your Ask AI widget LIVE
• User management tab

The Ask AI Manage section in the admin platform is where you will configure your settings and manage your features on an ongoing basis.

Any changes that you make in your admin platform will be reflected on your live widget that displays on your website for your visitors to engage and connect with anytime they have questions!

Appearance tab

Select from your options to customize how Ask AI looks and behaves. Instantly view changes with a live dynamic preview, allowing you to fine-tune the widget’s design in real time.

Appearance > Chat style

Make adjustments to the appearance of your Ask AI widget and preview your changes in real-time. Tailor Ask AI’s personality and appearance to align with your brand.

• Chatbot name: Give your chatbot a name. Some may choose a name such as, "Ask ___" where you can insert the name of a mascot, school, person, or any other ideas that might add engagement.
• Typography:
  • Font family: Select and preview which Font family your AskAI widget will display.
  • Primary font color: This will set the primary font color.
  • Secondary font color: This will set the secondary font color. 

• Chat color: Set the header and chat message colors to match your district and/or school branding.
• Chatbot avatar:
  • Choose from our avatars or upload your own.
    • Change the avatar for each of your separate schools or organizations on their own separate admin panels.
    • When uploading an image or logo, follow these guidelines: 
      • Only PNG or JPG formats allowed.
      • Maximum 1 MB.
      • Recommended 64×64 px (square).
      • Transparent backgrounds work best.
• Avatar color theme: Choose your color theme.

• Custom footer:
  • Full width text: Add a custom message to the footer below the "Type a message" field.
    • Insert hyperlink in the text: Use this button to add a hyperlink to your footer. Replace Link text between the brackets [] with your custom message, and replace the example URL with your URL within the parentheses (). Do not remove the brackets [] or parentheses ().
  • Footer link text: Customize the Privacy Policy text that appears in the footer. Maximum 35 character length.
  • Link URL: Update the Footer link text URL.

Appearance > Conversation

Configure how Ask AI initiates conversations with visitors.

• Tone of voice: Select from Friendly & Warm, Professional & Polite, or Concise & Direct.
• Welcome text: Set your "Hello!" message.
  • Insert hyperlink in the text: Use this button to add a hyperlink to your welcome message. Replace Link text between the brackets [] with your custom message, and replace the example URL with your URL within the parentheses (). Do not remove the brackets [] or parentheses ().

• Predefined questions: Predefined questions appear as bubble-style prompts within the Ask AI widget, giving users a one-click way to engage without typing. These prompts represent commonly asked or encouraged questions. 
  • When a user clicks a predefined question, Ask AI generates the answer in real time. This ensures responses stay aligned with the latest website content, even as that content evolves.
  • Add up to six questions to the widget. You can reorder them at any time or remove those that are no longer relevant.
  • Visible until (optional): Use the date picker to add an optional expiration date for specific questions.
    • The questions remains visible through the selected date and are hidden starting the following day.
    • Expired questions are automatically hidden from visitors and will display a yellow "Expired on" status under the Conversations tab.
    • To remove a scheduled expiration date, click the X icon next to the selected date.

Appearance > Widget bubble

Adjust the appearance and position of the widget, and customize a greeting message.

• Greeting messages: Toggle off to hide the greeting message and show only the circle widget icon.
  • First greeting message: Add text to populate at the top of the widget.
  • Second greeting message: This text will be the second part of your greeting. 
• Position: Set at Right by default. Choose either Left or Right.
• Bottom margin: Add space below the widget icon on the desktop view.
  • Use px for precise, fixed sizing and rem for scalable, accessible design based on root font size.
• Bottom margin - Mobile view: Add space below the widget icon in the mobile view.
  • Use px for precise, fixed sizing and rem for scalable, accessible design based on root font size.
• Z-Index: Controls the front-to-back stacking or layering of elements when they overlap.
  • Higher numbers bring the widget forward, ensuring it stays on top of other content. 
  • Small values (1-10) place it behind elements. 
  • Big values (1000+) keep it visible above menus or popups.
• Bubble widget: Select from the default bubble icons or add your own image or logo by clicking the plus +.
  • When uploading an image or logo, follow these guidelines: 
    • Only PNG or JPG formats allowed. 
    • Maximum 1 MB. 
    • Recommended 64×64 px (square). 
    • Transparent backgrounds work best.
  • Background color: Choose the background color of the widget bubble.
  • Icon color: Choose the icon color of the widget bubble.

Appearance > Feedback form 

Provide a Feedback form for your site visitors to give input on their experience with searching and finding what they're looking for. 

• Feedback form: Toggle off if you'd like to hide this option.
• Feedback form title: Customize the message title.
• Feedback form description: What can you put to elicit feedback from your site visitors?

View feedback

Any submitted feedback can be accessed in the Analytics > Feedback tab.

Knowledge tab

Here is where you'll connect all content to your Ask AI assistant’s personalized knowledge base, the central source that powers its conversations with site visitors.

Knowledge > Data sources

The data that is visible in the Your knowledge base will be populated by Website scans, File imports, and Priority Q&A.

Add source button

• Navigate to the Knowledge tab in left navigation.
• Click the Add Source button to add new content to your knowledge base.
• Add more knowledge: Select Website, File import, or Priority Q&A to provide more content to your Ask AI personalized knowledge base.

Add more knowledge > Website

Selecting this will open up the Add knowledge source window which will ask you to provide information to save this URL using some advanced strategies which will help to strengthen the efficiency of your new content. 

Here's some help filling out the fields in the Add knowledge source window: 

• Source name: Name this knowledge so you can easily manage all of your content internally.
• Source visibility: Visibility refers to whether a knowledge source is accessible across multiple instances or restricted to a single one. This helps teams control what information is shared and where it appears.
  • Chat specific: Select this if you want your new source to only be visible within the instance this resource was created for. 
  • Shared: This selection means this new content will be included across all instances within your organization.  
• Provide URL: Include the URL whose content you would like to be indexed.
• Exclude URLs by exact match: Checking this box allows you to exclude specific pages from being added to Ask AI by entering their exact web address. This feature ensures that content from those individual URLs won’t appear in your knowledge base and is useful for keeping internal, outdated, or irrelevant pages out of sight.
• Import Strategies: This section includes some options for indexing content. Choose the option that works best for what you'd like to do:
  • Recommended 
    • Full website (recommended): Selecting this will scan only the pages that start with a specific URL path. You can choose to scan your entire website or focus on a particular section. For example, capture all content under a directory (e.g. /staff) while excluding unrelated pages.
    • All subdomains: This option scans all subdomains under your website while skipping the main domain itself. This is ideal for scenarios where your content lives across separate sites, for example, with different schools within a district.
    • One Page: Indexes a single URL. Ideal for high-priority, frequently updated pages such as news or athletics. Recommended for targeted testing or when only one page’s content is needed.
  • Advanced Strategies
    • Domain name only: Scans the main domain but skips all subdomains. 
      • Useful when all of your important content lives directly under the core website. 
    • Same subdomain and domain name: Stays within one subdomain and the main domain, ignoring anything that links out to other subdomains. 
      • Great when your content is tightly grouped under one part of your site. 
    • All subdomains and domain name: Scans the main domain and all its subdomains to capture everything across your entire web presence. 
      • Best when all of your content is spread out but under the same domain structure. 
• Schedule re-scans: Set the frequency with which you'd like for the tool to go in to this particular new content and search for newly-added material. 
  • Select from: One time, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.
  • Most districts and schools select Weekly.

Add more knowledge > File import 

This option allows you to upload files into your personalized knowledge base.

• Click the File import button. 
• The Add knowledge source window will open.
• Provide a name.
• Click to browse for your file or drag into the upload area. 

Supported file types table

The following table details the file extensions supported by the system, along with specific constraints regarding image formats and file naming.

Guidelines for uploading knowledge via file import

• Use complete, grammatically correct sentences in all uploaded content
• Avoid fragments or vague bullet points which can confuse the AI
• Write in a clear, conversational tone that mirrors how users ask questions
• Prioritize context-rich phrasing to improve response accuracy
• Think of the AI as a helpful assistant: the more complete the input, the smarter the output

Mascot: Spartan	Brown Elementary's mascot is the Spartan.
Founded in 1967 or Year founded: 1967	Brown Elementary was founded in 1967.
Colors - Blue and white	Our school colors are blue and white.

Add more knowledge > Priority Q&A

This option allows you to add custom question & answer pairs to close gaps in Ask AI's knowledge. Visit the Knowledge > Priority Q&A section below to learn more about this feature.

Once saved, the Priority Q&A list will appear in the Data sources tab as an active source and is immediately used to improve the accuracy and relevance of responses. It will be marked with a tag of Q&A for visibility, sorting, and filtering.

Check on newly-added content

Once you add your knowledge content, you'll see the item added to the list. Indexing content may take several hours, especially if there are a lot of pages.

As it is running quietly in the background, refresh your Knowledge tab and check in the Scanned pages and Last sync columns for updates.

Manage your knowledge

The Data sources page is the area that you can perform various tasks to manage the knowledge content that exists on your platform. 

Use these features to manage your knowledge base content:

• Search bar: Quickly locate specific sources.
• Tag and Status Filters: Refine your view by content type or status of upload completion. 
• Table columns: Click column label arrows to change the sort order.
  • Included toggle: Toggle off to no longer include in future scans. Use the 3-dot menu to delete completely, or just leave toggled off to consider toggling it back on later.
  • Knowledge name: This is the name you give your content when adding it.
  • Source: The URL will display here for sources that are added by website URL. 
  • Visibility: This column shows you whether a knowledge source is accessible across multiple instances (Shared) or restricted to a single one (Chat specific). This helps teams control what information is shared and where it appears. Set this visibility in the Add knowledge source window when adding a URL. See Add more knowledge > Website in the bullet Source visibility. 
  • Tag: This shows you if the source was added via Website (Website), File (file import), or Q&A (Priority Q&A)
  • Strategy: When adding content by Website, you have an option of selecting strategies for indexing content. Read more about this in the section, "Add more knowledge > Website" in the bullet Import Strategies. 
  • Frequency: During import, you selected the schedule for how often this tool will go into the existing content looking for newly-added material. This column displays what that has been set to. 
  • Scanned pages: You can see here an update on how many pages have been scanned thus far.
  • Last sync: Date of last sync.
  • Status: Find a status of the progress in this content being added.
  • 3-dot menu (scroll to the far right): 
    • Preview Priority Q&A pairs safely without making changes,
    • Edit your source in the Edit source window,
    • Delete a source that you no longer want to use in your platform, and 
    • Sync now to manually sync a URL when wanting to include newly-added content. 

Edit source window 

In the Edit source window, you have two tabs where you can configure the options that you previously configured when adding a source: 

• General tab: Edit the source’s settings, including fields for Name, Visibility, Import strategies, and setting a schedule.
• Excluded URLs tab: Here you can manage URL exclusions to keep answers relevant by avoiding outdated, duplicate, or unreadable content.

To learn more about how to configure these settings, check out bullets in the section, "Add more knowledge > Website." 

Manually sync on-demand

When you add new content to a page, you may want to go to that particular knowledge item and click Sync so that the system will re-index and include any new content included in a source. 

Here's how to Manually Sync a URL source:

• Locate the knowledge item's row in the Data Sources tab.
• Click on the 3-dot menu to open the quick panel.
• Select Sync now to reconnect and index any new content.

Knowledge > Knowledge analysis

Knowledge analysis lets you evaluate how well your website content answers parent questions, using predefined questions each designed around common topics. When you run an analysis, Ask AI checks your knowledge base against the generated questions and highlights what’s answered, and what’s missing. This helps you keep your content accurate, complete, and ready to support families.

Run knowledge analysis

• Step 1: To run the report, click the Run knowledge analysis button to open the options and then pick between the Essential Parent Questions (Public Schools) or Essential Parent Question (Independent Schools).  

• Step 2: Once the analysis is complete, a report card will appear on the page with the percentage of questions covered based on the number of preset questions.

• Step 3: Click on the report card to view the simulated questions and AI responses.

View report

• The AI model will put each question and answer pair into categories on the left side of the report and give the category a percentage based on how many questions were resolved. Click on a category to see the question and answer pairs.

• Each question and answer pair will be marked as Resolved or Unresolved.
  • Resolved: The question was answered by the simulated AI response.
  • Unresolved: The question was not answered by the simulated AI response.
• Use the filter at the top of the page to show All, Resolved, or Unresolved questions in each category.

Export report

Report card questions and AI responses can be exported to a .csv file in the following ways:

• From the Knowledge analysis page: Click on the Export report button on a report card to export the data.

• From the report card results screen: Click on a report card to view the results and select the Export report button in the top right corner.

Re-run report

On the Knowledge analysis page, click Re-run on a report card to re-run the analysis for updated results.

Knowledge > Fallback replies 

This area within the Knowledge tab is the Fallback replies area.

• Anytime Ask AI doesn’t have an answer, Fallback replies help guide users to the right person.
• You can set up who a user can contact when extra help is needed. 

Learn more about how Fallbacks work

Within the platform, click the Learn more button to better understand how Fallbacks work. 

Example scenario: 

A site visitor asks, "Do you have blunderball at the school?" and, instead of returning "answer not found", Ask AI will reply with a more helpful answer, such as, "Sorry, I couldn't find any information about blunderball, but for inquiries related to athletics you can reach out to John Doe, Athletics Director at john@school.edu." 

Configure your Fallback replies

Use this section to link each designated contact to the categories they’re best equipped to support, so users know exactly who to reach out to for specific questions.

• Step 1: Select a category or categories you'd like to configure. 
  • You can also select +Add custom category to add one you don't see in the Categories already.
• Step 2: Enter the Name, Title, Contact Information, and Website URL for the individual that site visitors will be directed to if a question isn't answered sufficiently. 
• Step 3: Want to add more fallback info? Click +Add fallback to add another consecutive instance. Click the trashcan to delete a fallback instance you wish to remove. 
• Step 4: Click Save when you have finished adding all fallback replies you wish to add. 

Now in the Fallback replies area, you can scroll to see all of your configured fallback reply contacts. Scroll to browse, edit as needed before saving, and add new contacts to help your users find the answers they need! 

Knowledge > Priority Q&A

Add custom question/answer pairs to close gaps in Ask AI's knowledge. Saving these entries creates a dedicated knowledge base source (one per instance) that is prioritized above other sources when answering user questions. 

• Source Name: Display name of the Priority Q&A list, which will appear on the Data sources tab.
• Source visibility: Set the visibility of the Priority Q&A list.
  • Chatbot specific: Limits visibility to the instance you are currently using.
  • Shared: Makes list available to all instances in your organization.
• Q&A: Fill in a Question and Answer to create a Priority Q&A pair.
  • +Add Q&A button: Add an additional Q&A pair.
  • Trash can icon: Delete a Q&A pair.
• Save: Click Save when you are finished adding your Q&A pairs to save your changes.

Once saved, the list will appear in the Data sources tab as an active source and is immediately used to improve the accuracy and relevance of responses. It will be marked with a tag of Q&A for visibility, sorting, and filtering.

Test & Launch tab

This tab is where you can find the necessary code to embed the Ask AI widget onto your website.

Preview and push your Ask AI widget LIVE

• Step 1: Copy the code
  • Navigate to the section in the Test & Launch tab labeled JavaScript snippet and click Copy to clipboard to obtain the code you see in the box. 

• Step 2: Paste code into CMS > Themes > External Assets

  • Navigate to your CMS Admin site > Composer left navigation > Themes tab.

  

  • Click to open the theme your site is using.
  • Locate the External Assets field.

  • Paste the provided code snippet into the External Assets area. 

    Important Note

    There may already be html code between <> tags in the External Assets box. That's ok! Simply add the new code somewhere in the same field, making sure it is also separated by <> tags.

• Step 3: Enable test mode
  • Confirm that toggle next to Enable Test Mode is ON. This allows you to preview changes without affecting the live site.
• Step 4: Preview in test mode
  • Open a new tab to preview the widget and test functionality. Make any necessary adjustments.
• Step 5: Toggle off to GO LIVE on your public site

When ready to go live, navigate back to the Admin platform > Test & Launch tab and toggle off Enable Test Mode which will make your widget live. Your Ask AI widget is now live! It will function publicly according to its intended settings.

User management tab

As you and your team work together to facilitate your Ask AI feature on your site(s), you will want to learn how you can grant role-based permissions. This ensures that each person on your team has the right level of access. Learn more about how this works in the article, "Ask AI permissions."