YOUR OBJECTIVE COMES FIRST
Research preparation
Give people an assistant whose work they can inspect.
Illinois DCEO identifies advanced manufacturing, food processing, life sciences, transportation and logistics, and quantum computing, AI and microelectronics as targeted sectors. A useful scoping example is freight exceptions and customer-account visibility. Follow a shipment reference, appointment change and customer update through the work with dispatch, customer operations and account teams. Several messages may describe the same exception without sharing a consistent reference. How will the team connect related messages to one accountable exception?
Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity: industry context ↗01Choose a narrow job for the assistant
Define the user, the task and the first useful output. A research draft, a support response and a summary of an account require different sources and checks. Describe what the assistant must decline, defer or hand to a person instead of promising a general answer to every question.
02Keep source access meaningful
Identify document owners, current versions and existing permissions. For retrieval-based tools, apply access controls before content enters the answer-generation step. Decide how superseded documents are removed or marked, and how reviewers can inspect the relevant source passage. Working example: A cited first draft and research question set.
03Evaluate answers beyond their wording
Test representative questions against expert-reviewed evidence. Examine factual support, missing context, citation accuracy and the handling of questions the sources cannot answer. An answer can sound convincing while omitting the condition that makes it useful or safe. For freight exceptions and customer-account visibility, agree how dispatch, customer operations and account teams contribute where those functions are involved.
04Decide which actions need approval
Reading an approved record is different from modifying it or sending a message. Scope tool access and confirmation requirements by action. Preserve a clear draft state and activity record so users understand what the assistant prepared and what has actually changed. Review check: A reviewer can trace each important statement to supporting material.