📘 Best Practices: Troubleshooting missing or unexpected AI Answers

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Access Required

Admins can review permissions, Source connections, and Knowledge Agent settings.

Knowledge Agent Owners, Collection Owners, and Source Owners can also assist with checking permissions in the area they own.

The below video runs through some of the most common causes for missing or unexpected AI Answers:

Understanding how Guru AI Answers work

Guru’s Enterprise AI Search and Knowledge Agents generate contextually relevant responses using your organization’s connected knowledge. The quality of answers often depends on:

• How clearly the question is asked
• Whether the right permissions and connections are in place
• The structure and format of your Source content

Setting expectations for AI Answers

• Questions must be clear
  AI will do its best to understand intent based on keywords, and will occasionally generate an Answer even if a question was not explicitly asked. However, it is best practice to format your inquiry in the form of a question to ensure it is understood by AI.

• Tone or style may differ

  • If the response tone feels off, consider refining the Custom Prompt in the Knowledge Agent settings.

• Review flagged responses regularly
  Use the AI Agent Center to improve performance over time.

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Tip:

For locating known documents (like “onboarding checklist”), try using keyword search rather than AI Answers.

Gathering key details

Before troubleshooting, gather this information:

• Exact question asked
  It is best practice to use a clearly-phrased a question over just a keyword or phrase.

• AI Answer received (if any)
  Check if the response is incorrect or just unexpected.

• Which Knowledge Agent was used
  Review the settings for that specific agent.

• Where the question was asked
  Identify whether it was in Slack, the Guru Web App, on a Guru Page, or via the Guru browser extension.

• User who asked the question
  Make sure the user has access to the Source and/or Collection, and Knowledge Agent.

• Location of the expected Answer
  Determine if the answer lives in a connected Source or a Guru Card.

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Note:

If asking on a Custom Page, make sure a default Knowledge Agent is assigned.
See: Customizing and managing Pages in Guru

Reviewing “No direct Answer was found”

Checking default Knowledge Agent settings

1. Open theKnowledge Agent settings.
2. Confirm the correct:
   • Permissions
   • Connected Sources
   • Website configuration (if applicable)
   • Custom prompt
3. If asking within a Custom Page, confirm the default Knowledge Agent is correctly assigned.
   See: Customizing and managing Pages in Guru

Verifying Source availability and sync

1. Check Source and/or Collection permissions.
   • Ensure the user has access to the Source and/or Collection where the content lives.
2. Confirm the expected content exists in Guru or is connected via a Source.
   • Search manually by title in the Web App. If it doesn’t appear, you might not be permissioned to see the Collection where the Card lives, or the Source might not be connected properly.
3. Check Source sync status
   Go to Manage > Sources and confirm the sync does not show any errors.
4. Review the Custom Prompt.
   • Prompts that are too narrow may block valid results.
     See: Best Practices: Custom Prompts for Knowledge Agents

Checking if the issue is Slack-specific

Ask the same question in Slack and the Web App.

If the answer only appears in the Web App, this might indicate there's something missing from the Slack/Guru setup:

• Use /invite @Guru in the Slack channel to ensure Guru is added.
• For custom Knowledge Agents, confirm the correct Slack channel is listed under the Slack tab.
• See: Setting up and Managing Knowledge Agents

Review Source sharing settings.

• In the Knowledge Agent Slack tab, uncheck Limit responses to Sources shared with All Members unless you're restricting sensitive info.

Troubleshooting incorrect Answers and improving quality

• Flag incorrect Answers
  Askers can flag an AI Answer or use Ask an Expert. See: Getting AI Generated Answers

• Update Source content
  In the AI Agent Center, Admins, Owners, and Experts can revise the content to improve future responses.

Asking better AI questions

1. Be specific and provide context

   • ❌ Poor: “Tell me about Workspaces.”
   • ✅ Better: “What are the key features of Workspaces for enterprise customers?”

2. Use clear, specific key words

   • ❌ Poor: “What’s the status of our security certifications?”
   • ✅ Better: “What is the status of our SOC2 certification?”

3. Break complex questions into simpler ones

   • ❌ Poor: “What are the features, use cases, and competitors of Knowledge Agents?”
   • ✅ Better: “What are the key features of Knowledge Agents?”

4. Avoid ambiguous pronouns

   • ❌ Poor: “What is our pricing?”
   • ✅ Better: “What is Guru’s pricing model?”

5. Use consistent terminology

   • ❌ Poor: “How many sources can a KA have?”
   • ✅ Better: “How many sources can a Knowledge Agent have?”

6. Test and learn together

   • Encourage your team to ask realistic questions and flag the answers so that you can review in the AI Agent Center. [https://app.getguru.com/ai-agent-center/questions]

Understanding why answers may fall short

Common causes of unreliable responses:

Supported file types for external content

To ensure your uploaded or connected content is fully indexed for AI Answers, use supported formats:

Common file types:
.pdf, .docx, .pptx, .xlsx, .txt, .html, .key, .odt, .rtf

Platform-specific formats:

• Microsoft: .msword, .powerpoint, .excel
• Google: .document, .presentation, .spreadsheet
• Apple: .pages, .keynote, .numbers
• Open Office: .opendocument.*

Submitting a support ticket

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Contact Support

If you've followed all troubleshooting steps and still need help, Contact Guru Support via:

• Web App: Click the ? icon, then Contact Guru Support.

Include the following details:

• Link to the AI Agent Center question
• Exact question asked
• AI Answer received (or note if none appeared)
• Which Knowledge Agent was used
• Where the question was asked
• Email of the user who asked
• Location of the expected Answer (Guru Card or connected Source)
• Any helpful links, screen recordings, or screenshots