Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new “it” system in town. Everyone wants a piece of the AI pie. But, does it make sense for AI to be used in knowledge management?
Absolutely! AI can help improve efficiencies in your knowledge management strategies. You just need AI that’s goal is to do that — not just be an internal ChatGPT.
Working for ScreenSteps — a knowledge ops solution — we’ve worked hard to figure out how we can add AI to our knowledge ops platform to best help businesses improve their knowledge transfer. And that has required researching AI options.
So, what is the role of AI in knowledge management? And how can you use it to better manage and transfer knowledge in your company? Watch this 3-minute video and keep reading to find out.
1. Identify user tasks
You’re not going to dump all your existing documents into your AI system and call that good enough. You still need clear digital guides. But, it can be difficult to know what digital guides you need to create.
AI can help you identify what people need to find, when they need it, in the moment of need. It can help you identify tasks that your employees or customers deal with in their daily operations.
AI Prompt Example
I need to create a collection of digital guides for my credit union knowledge base. I need to know what policies and procedures I need to document. Please provide me with a list of different policies and procedures a credit union handles in its day-to-day operations.
2. Outline your SOPs
Often, your subject matter experts (SMEs) have too many details in their heads so it is difficult for them to discern the essential information that needs to be in a digital guide. That’s where AI can help.
AI can help you outline or summarize your content. Having an outline helps reduce the cognitive load of translating what you are sharing. Plus, it keeps you from adding unnecessary information to your digital guides.
Expert tip: Voice record your SMEs explaining the steps in a procedure. Use an app to transcribe that recording. Then upload that recording into your AI assistant with the instruction to “outline a summary of the text.” The result is a nice outline for building your standard operating procedure (SOP).
3. Draft your digital guides
Probably one of the most common uses for AI is for drafting your digital guides. Creating policies and procedures takes a lot of time.
When it comes to step-by-step guides, you’ll still need to add your screenshots and other visuals after AI writes the steps.
Warning: You don’t want to use AI and leave the article as is.
You need to edit articles to be followable and scannable. You’ll also want to perform user acceptance testing before releasing your AI articles to the entire company.
AI Prompt Example
I'm writing a step-by-step procedure on how to deposit a check. I need each step of this procedure to include an action or specific task. These instructions should be summarized into numbered bullet points. Please write me a guide on how to deposit a check at a bank.
4. Optimize search results
AI can improve access to your company knowledge. An AI tool scans the content and can automatically add tags to your articles, which makes discoverability easier.
It understands the context of the material as well as the behaviors of your users. AI helps translate what you meant to ask: “They said this. They probably meant to say this.”
5. Automate in real-time with chatbots
Chatbots are not a new tool — but AI has improved the content a chatbot feeds your users. When you have an AI-powered chatbot, it can learn from past user experiences to enhance the information it feeds your users.
6. Anticipate the future with predictive analytics
AI identifies patterns and trends in data. This helps in predicting future needs and knowledge gaps. You can use this information to create digital guides that fill that knowledge gap.
7. Identify subject matter experts (SMEs)
Often, companies assign different SMEs to document specific articles in their area of expertise. An AI tool can help automate those assignments.
It does this by recognizing which experts have assignments in each area of knowledge. Then, when a new article is published, it can recommend an SME to own that article.
This prompts you to assign ownership for different articles to SMEs. Ultimately, this helps you keep your knowledge base or other knowledge management system up to date.
Increase independence and self-service with an AI knowledge management system
AI can be a powerful knowledge management tool when used wisely. The trick is to understand why you are using AI and leveraging it to make your end-users more independent.
At ScreenSteps, we are continuing to test and improve our AI offerings. Our AI technology helps businesses outline articles and foundational courses using the Find & Follow Framework.
This helps reduce the cognitive load for creating articles and launching your knowledge ops platform. And it helps save hours of work.
Want to see the ScreenSteps AI tool in action? Watch this 3-minute video to see how the ScreenSteps AI tool works.
Reach out to a ScreenSteps expert to discuss how the ScreenSteps AI tool can help your company manage and transfer knowledge more efficiently.
