YOUR OBJECTIVE COMES FIRST
Service knowledge assistant
Give people an assistant whose work they can inspect.
Montana Commerce identifies manufacturing, agriculture and ag technology, B2B technology, life sciences, back-office operations and logistics among its key industries. A useful scoping example is distributed field-service scheduling. Follow a site reference, travel requirement and task-readiness checklist through the work with field coordination, service specialists and site contacts. A scheduled visit can fail if equipment access or required parts are not confirmed before travel. Which readiness checks must be complete before a field visit is scheduled?
Montana Department of Commerce: 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 Decide how superseded documents are removed or marked, and how reviewers can inspect the relevant source passage.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: Approved instructions with model and version references.
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 distributed field-service scheduling, agree how field coordination, service specialists and site contacts 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: Unsupported equipment questions lead to a clear escalation.