AI Assistance

1Overview #

Four small jobs an AI is genuinely good at: summarising a long conversation, drafting a reply for somebody to edit and send, tidying up notes typed in a hurry after a call, and answering a question about the software itself out of its own help.

It is set up once, here, and any part of the product may use it - it is NOT a CRM feature, though the CRM is where three of the four are used.

This is the only part of the ERP that sends a customer's words to another company - and the fourth job, answering a question about the software, sends none of your data at all. So it is off until somebody here turns it on, each use is allowed separately, and every request is written down - what was asked, how much went, what came back, who asked, and whether they used it.

The software never sends what the AI writes. The answer comes back to the screen. A person reads it, changes it, and sends it - or does not.

2Who it is for #

• An administrator setting up the service and deciding what may be sent.
• Anybody who has to answer for what left the company - the log is here.

3What it is not for #

• Asking the AI anything - that happens on the record, in the conversation or after a call.
• Automatic replies. Nothing here can send a message, by construction.
• The scores - those are rules and a model, on CRM > Scoring, and no AI is involved in them.

4Step by step #

1. Read the notice at the top of the page. - It says exactly what is sent, and when.
2. Fill in the service, the model name and the key, and save. - The key is stored encrypted and never comes back to the screen.
3. Tick which of the three are allowed. - Anything unticked is refused by the server, not merely hidden.
4. Switch Use AI assistance on. - Until this, nothing at all is sent.
5. Try it on a conversation, then come back and read the log. - It shows how much was sent and whether the answer was used.

5The fields #

The service

Which AI, and how to reach it.

• Name - Whatever you will recognise it by. Required
• Which service - OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, or something else of the same shape. Required How the request is built and where the key goes - each service wants it differently.
• Model name - Exactly as the service spells it. Required A name the service does not know is the commonest failure, and it answers 404.
• Address - Where to post. Required for Azure and Custom Blank uses the service's own address. Azure's is from the Azure portal and already names the deployment. Must begin with https:// - a key must never travel in the clear.
• Key - The service's API key. Required once Stored encrypted; never sent back to this screen. Leave it blank to keep the key already there, or type to replace it.
• Longest answer (tokens) - How much may come back at once. Optional What one answer can cost. 800 suits a summary or a short reply. 100 to 8000.
• In use - Whether this service is the one used. Optional

What it may do

Settings 284-286.

• Use AI assistance - Whether anything is sent at all. Optional Off means no customer text ever leaves this company. Setting 284.
• Summarise this conversation - Allowed or not. Optional The messages in a conversation are sent. Setting 285.
• Draft a reply for me to edit - Allowed or not. Optional The conversation is sent; the reply comes back for a person to send. Setting 285.
• Tidy up my call notes - Allowed or not. Optional Only what was typed is sent. Setting 285.
• Keep the log for (days) - How long the record of what was sent is kept. Optional Keep it at least as long as your own audit window. Setting 286.

The log

Every request, newest first.

• When / Who / Asked for / About - The request, and the record it was about. Read-only
• Sent / Back - Characters out and in. Read-only Roughly what the service charges by.
• What happened - Answered, Failed with the reason, or Refused. Read-only Refused means this CRM would not send it - a setting was off, or the person had no right to that record.
• Used - Whether the person kept what came back. Read-only Nothing. It is the only honest way to tell whether this is worth paying for.

6Rules and integrity #

• Four gates, all of which must be open - The licence; Use AI assistance; the particular task being ticked; and the asker's own right to that record. Asking the AI about a lead you may not see would be a way around every other rule in the CRM.
• A shut gate is Refused, not an error - It is written to the log as Refused. "Somebody tried" is worth knowing, and "the system broke" would be untrue.
• The least that will do is sent - A conversation's messages, or the notes just typed. Never the ledger, never prices, never another customer. A long conversation is cut to its most recent 12,000 characters.
• The user always sends - There is no call anywhere in the product that sends what an AI wrote. Every answer goes to a screen and waits for a person.
• The key is write-only - It is encrypted in the database and never travels back to a browser. A blank key box means "keep the one you have".
• Nothing is sent while it is off - Switching Use AI assistance off stops it at the server, not in the page - so it stops for everybody at once, including anything already open.

7Shortcut keys #

• F5 - Save the service and the settings.
• Esc - Leave the page.

8If something does not work #

9For an administrator #

• What is actually sent - For a summary or a draft: up to 60 messages of that one conversation, each as "Them" or "Us", a time and the text, cut to the most recent 12,000 characters. For call notes: only what the user typed. Nothing else is gathered.
• Cost - The service charges by the word. The Sent and Back columns are characters, which is the nearest thing this CRM can show without pretending to know a particular service's pricing.
• If this must never be used - Leave setting 284 off and set up no service. The buttons never appear, and the server refuses in any case.

10Settings it uses #

• 284 - use AI assistance at all.
• 285 - which of the three tasks are allowed.
• 286 - how long the log of what was sent is kept.