# AI answers from your knowledge base The AI Assistant in the app's Chat tab answers your team's questions from your knowledge base. How articles and documents get ready for it, who sees which answers, and what it costs. For: Admins, Managers · On: Web, iOS, Android · [Help Center](https://www.mays.app/help) › [Knowledge & training](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training) · Last updated October 8, 2026 · Mays Team The AI Assistant in the app's Chat tab answers your team's questions from your knowledge base: "How long do we hold soup?", "What's the float in the safe?". It works in the iPhone and Android apps. **Mays AI on the web doesn't read the knowledge base**; it answers questions about your operations instead (see [Asking Mays AI on the web](https://www.mays.app/help/ai-automation/mays-ai-on-the-web)). ## Get your content ready There's nothing to switch on. Everything you add to the knowledge base is prepared for the AI automatically. - **Articles:** when you save an article, the button says **Create & Index for AI** or **Update & Index for AI**. Saving is all it takes. - **Documents:** after an upload or an import, Mays reads the file in the background. PDFs with text, Word files, TXT, CSV and Markdown are read as they are. For pictures (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC), Mays reads the text in the photo. - **Deleting** an article, a document or a folder removes it from the AI Assistant too. Deleting a folder also removes everything in the folders inside it. ![The New Article window in the web knowledge base: Title Cash deposits and safe counts, a Summary, an empty Video URL, the article text about counting the safe and preparing the bank deposit, and the Create & Index for AI button](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__ai-answers-from-your-knowledge-base__01-create-and-index.5b27bd5a59.png) **Index all for AI** is the magnifying-glass button at the far right of the knowledge base's top bar (the tooltip says *Index all for AI*). It prepares every article in your company again, and says *Knowledge base indexed* when it's done. Use it if the AI Assistant doesn't seem to know an article you've edited. It doesn't re-read documents, but it does bring who can get answers from each document back in line with its folder. Only people whose role can **Create / edit / delete articles** can use it. ## Ask a question 1. In the Mays app, open **Chat** and tap **+**. 2. Tap **AI Assistant** (*Start a new AI chat*). 3. Type your question, for example *What float should the safe have at close?* The AI Assistant looks for the parts of your articles and documents that match the question and answers from them, in the language you wrote in, even if the article is in another language. See [The AI Assistant in chat](https://www.mays.app/help/ai-automation/ai-assistant-in-chat). ## Who gets which answers The AI Assistant answers each person only from what they can open in the knowledge base: - An employee gets answers from what's shared with everyone, their location, their role or them. - A manager also gets answers from what's shared with managers. - Admins get answers from the whole knowledge base. So keep manager-only material (cash handling, HR notes) in a folder shared with **Managers**, not with everyone. See [Who can see what in the knowledge base](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/knowledge-sharing-and-visibility). ## When nothing matches If no article or document fits the question closely, the AI Assistant reads through all the articles the person can open and answers from those. If your knowledge base has nothing on the subject, it answers from general knowledge. It doesn't link to the article it used. For anything that matters (allergens, temperatures, cash), write it down in an article, and tell your team to check the article when an answer looks wrong. ## AI credits - **Each answer uses AI credits** from the balance of the asker's location. It shows as **Chat** under **Usage by Feature**. A short answer uses a few credits; a long conversation or a photo uses more. - **Saving articles and Index all for AI** don't use credits. Reading the text in an uploaded photo can (**Document Ocr**). - When the location runs out of credits, the AI Assistant replies that it can't answer. See [AI credits](https://www.mays.app/help/account-billing/ai-credits). ## Good to know - **The knowledge base needs your plan.** It's in **Basic** and **Pro** (and the free trial). Without it, the AI Assistant still answers, but not from your knowledge base. - **Scanned PDFs** (pictures of pages with no text in them) can't be read and disappear from the folder. Upload a photo of the page, or the original Word file, instead. - **Managers only on older folders.** The **Managers only** switch on an older folder applies to the AI Assistant's answers straight away, and so does moving an article or document to another folder. An older folder tied to a location only answers people at that location. - **The web knowledge base search** only matches names in the folder you're in. To search inside articles and documents, ask the AI Assistant. ## Related articles - Knowledge & training: [Your knowledge base](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/knowledge-base-basics) — Keep your SOPs, recipes and policies in one place. Admins and managers build folders of articles and documents on the web; the whole team reads and searches them in the app. - AI & automation: [The AI Assistant in chat](https://www.mays.app/help/ai-automation/ai-assistant-in-chat) — Start a chat with the AI Assistant from the app's Chat tab. It answers from your knowledge base, looks up your tasks (and, for managers, sales and who's on shift), and can read a photo you take. - Knowledge & training: [Who can see what in the knowledge base](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/knowledge-sharing-and-visibility) — Every new folder starts private. Share it with everyone, a location, a role or one person, and choose whether they can view or edit. What admins, managers and employees see. - AI & automation: [Asking Mays AI on the web](https://www.mays.app/help/ai-automation/mays-ai-on-the-web) — Mays AI is the round button in the corner of every web page. Ask it about today's tasks, who's on shift, sales, temperatures or labor cost, or have it build a report you can save. - Account & billing: [AI credits](https://www.mays.app/help/account-billing/ai-credits) — Mays's AI features use AI credits from each location's balance. What uses them, how many your plan adds every month, how to check a balance and how to buy more. - Knowledge & training: [Importing from Dropbox or Google Drive](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/import-from-dropbox-or-google-drive) — Connect your company's Dropbox or Google Drive once, then copy SOPs, PDFs and Google Docs into a knowledge base folder. Each import is a one-time copy; later changes don't sync. ## Still need help? Send us a support request and a real person on the Mays team will get back to you. [Contact support](https://www.mays.app/contact?topic=support) · [Call +1 (561) 286-3939](tel:+15612863939) Canonical: https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/ai-answers-from-your-knowledge-base