The business challenge
A consulting firm keeps delivery playbooks, templates, and project material across several repositories. People rely on colleagues to find the latest guidance. Some information is broadly available, while client-specific documents have restricted access.
The proposed approach
Build an internal knowledge assistant that retrieves relevant passages from approved repositories and cites the sources used in its answer. Preserve document permissions at retrieval time and make insufficient evidence visible to the user.
What the scope would include
- A defined set of repositories and document owners.
- Ingestion with document version and freshness tracking.
- Permission-aware retrieval and source-linked answers.
- Feedback for missing, outdated, or unhelpful results.
How the pieces connect
Source connectors feed a search index containing document references and access metadata. Retrieval applies the user’s permissions before supplying context to the language model. The interface links to the underlying source so the user can inspect the evidence.
Controls and exception handling
Restricted-document tests are part of evaluation. Deleted or changed permissions need a defined synchronization process. The assistant avoids an unsupported answer when sources conflict or do not contain the requested information.
Intended benefits
- Make approved internal guidance easier to locate.
- Reduce repeated questions about established processes.
- Keep supporting documents close to generated answers.
How we would evaluate it
Track source retrieval relevance, citation support, restricted-content exposure tests, answer usefulness, unanswered questions, and the freshness of indexed material.
Actual outcomes would depend on the available systems and data, agreed scope, user adoption, and results of the pilot.