Ask Genie

Asking Genie works like messaging a well-informed colleague: you write a question, Genie looks in the right places and answers with its sources. This page covers starting a conversation, how Genie decides where to look, how to write questions that get good answers, and what you can do while and after Genie answers.

Start a conversation

1. Click New chat in the sidebar. The Home screen opens.
2. Type your question in the message box (Ask a question or describe a task…). For example: "What is the meal allowance for staff on business trips to Da Nang?"
3. Press Enter, or click the arrow button (Send).

To start a new line without sending, press Shift+Enter. You can also click one of the suggested questions under the message box.

Genie shows its progress while it works, for example Searching knowledge base... or Thinking, then writes the answer. The conversation appears in the sidebar under Today.

How Genie decides where to look

You do not have to pick a knowledge base, a database or an agent first. In a new conversation, Genie, your workspace's default assistant, is usually in Automatic mode, unless your admin chose another default. For each question, Genie picks the sources that fit among the ones you may use:

• your company's documents in the knowledge bases you can read;
• data from the Databases and Power BI sources you may query;
• the web, when the question needs public or current information;
• a specialist agent, such as an HR assistant, when the question clearly belongs to it.

A short note at the top of the answer says where Genie looked, for example Quick answer from documents, Looked up documents and data in Contoso ERP or Asked HR assistant. If a quick look in the documents was not enough, the note starts with Documents were not enough, so Genie looked further.

Choose a mode yourself

1. In the message box, click + (Add photos, files and tools).
2. Point to Agent. The list Select Agent opens.
3. On the Genie row, click a mode:
   • Automatic: Genie picks the sources for each question (recommended).
   • Fast: a quick answer from the documents, and from the web when needed.
   • Deep: Genie works in several steps, for comparisons, analysis and tasks that need tools.

In the same list you can choose another agent for the whole conversation. See Agents.

Screenshot coming soonA finished answer with its citationswebsite-docs/public/screenshots/en/chat-answer.png

A finished answer with its citations

Write good questions

• Say what you want in one or two sentences. "What documents do I need to claim a hotel expense?" works better than "expenses".
• Give the context Genie cannot guess: the branch, the period, the product, the customer. "Sales of frozen seafood in Ho Chi Minh City in September" instead of "sales last month".
• Name the document if you know it: "According to the warehouse SOP, how often are cold rooms checked?"
• Ask for the format you need: "as a table", "in five bullet points", "in English".
• One topic per question. For a long task, ask step by step in the same conversation.
• Check the citations of important answers. See Sources and citations.

Ask follow-up questions

Stay in the same conversation to continue: Genie remembers what was said earlier in it. You can write "And for Hanoi?" or "Make that shorter" without repeating everything.

Under many answers, Keep asking suggests follow-up questions. Click one to ask it.

Start a New chat when you change topic: a fresh conversation keeps earlier questions from steering the new answer.

Stop or steer an answer

To stop an answer while Genie is writing it, click the square button that replaces the send button (Stop Generation). What Genie wrote so far stays on the screen.

To add an instruction while Genie is working (in Deep mode and with agents that work in several steps):

1. Type your message in the message box while the answer is running.
2. Choose:
   • Enter: the message waits and is sent after the current answer (Send after completion). It appears above the message box.
   • ⌘Enter (Mac) or Alt+Enter (Windows): the message is added to the current task at once (Supplement current task). Genie reads it at its next step and adjusts.
3. For a waiting message, click ↑ to add it to the current task now, or × to remove it.

For example, while Genie is comparing delivery times across the three branches, add "Leave out the Da Nang warehouse, it was closed in August."

Screenshot coming soonAn answer in progress, with the stop button and a waiting messagewebsite-docs/public/screenshots/en/chat-steer.png

An answer in progress, with the stop button and a waiting message

Messages added while Genie is working cannot carry attachments. In Automatic and Fast mode, wait for the answer to finish, or stop it, and then send your next message.

Copy an answer

Under a finished answer, click Copy. The text of the answer is copied, ready to paste into an email or a document. Headings, lists and tables are copied as Markdown, the plain-text format many apps understand.

To copy the whole conversation, see Conversations.

Rate an answer

Your ratings help the people who look after the documents fix what is wrong or missing. Your workspace admins see how many answers were rated and why, never your question, unless you choose to send it.

1. Under the answer, click 👍 (Helpful) or 👎 (Not helpful).
2. After 👎, Genie asks What was wrong with this answer? Choose one or more reasons: Wrong, Outdated, Information not found, Incomplete or Other.
3. To let the admins see exactly what went wrong, tick Send this question and answer to the workspace admins so they can improve Genie and add a comment if you like. They see the question, Genie's answer and your comment, without your name. Leave the box unticked to keep the question to yourself: the admins then only count the rating and the reasons.
4. Click Send, or Skip to keep the 👎 without details.

To change your rating, click the thumb again. A second click on 👍 removes the rating (Remove rating). A second click on 👎 (Change what was wrong) reopens the dialog, where you can edit the reasons, untick the box to take the question back, or click Remove rating.

Screenshot coming soonRating an answer that was not helpful, with the box ticked to send the question to the adminswebsite-docs/public/screenshots/en/answer-rating.png

Rating an answer that was not helpful, with the box ticked to send the question to the admins

Other actions on an answer

Button	What it does
Copy	Copies the answer
Add to Knowledge Base	Opens an editor with the question and answer, ready to save in a knowledge base you are allowed to edit
Branch icon (Continue from this answer in a new conversation)	Starts a new conversation that continues from this answer. See Conversations
Rewind icon (Rewind to here)	Deletes everything after this point in the conversation. See Conversations
Folder icon (View files generated in this reply)	Shows the files Genie made. See Files and artifacts

Your own questions have Copy, branch and rewind buttons too. To change a question you already sent, rewind to it: the question goes back into the message box so you can edit and send it again.

Good to know

• Same question, different answers. Genie answers from what you may read. A colleague in another department may get a different answer to the same question. That is how your company's permissions work, not an error.
• An ⓘ icon under the answer with No relevant content found in knowledge base… means Genie found nothing in your documents and answered from general knowledge. Treat that answer with care. See Sources and citations.
• The answer stopped in the middle? An ⓘ icon explains when an answer was cut off because it was too long. Ask for a shorter answer, or ask in parts.
• The model name on the right of the message box shows which AI model answers. Your company chooses which models you can pick; you can usually leave it as it is.
• Voice: you can also speak your question. See Voice input.

Related pages

• Sources and citations
• Ask your documents
• Ask your data
• Agents
• Conversations