Knowledge Base is a powerful capability that allows the within a to access and leverage your organization’s documents when responding to your questions. This feature transforms generic AI responses into contextual, organization-specific answers grounded in your proprietary information.
Knowledge Base retrieval process illustration

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What is a Knowledge Base?

A Knowledge Base in Omnifact is a curated collection of documents that are accessible to a Space’s AI assistant. It serves as the specialized knowledge foundation for each Space, providing:

Document Repository

A secure storage location for important files relevant to the Space’s purpose or domain.

Contextual Intelligence

Source material that enhances the AI assistant’s ability to provide relevant, accurate, and organization-specific information.

Proprietary Knowledge

A way to leverage your internal documents that aren’t available to general AI systems.

Shared Reference

A common information source that all Space members can benefit from through the AI assistant.

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Benefits of Knowledge Base Retrieval

Domain-Specific Expertise

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How Knowledge Base Retrieval Works

When you ask a question in a Space with a Knowledge Base, the AI assistant intelligently processes your and leverages relevant documents to formulate its .
1

Query Analysis

When you ask a question, the AI assistant analyzes what you’re asking to determine if Knowledge Base documents might contain relevant information.
2

Document Retrieval

If relevant, the system searches the Knowledge Base to find documents containing information that might help answer your question.
3

Privacy Protection

Before processing, the Privacy Filter automatically detects and masks any sensitive information in the retrieved documents. When the Privacy Filter is enabled, images are also restricted from being sent to AI models not hosted within the EU.
4

Information Processing

The AI assistant reads and understands the relevant sections from the documents, extracting the information needed to answer your question.
5

Response Generation

Using both its general knowledge and the specific information from your Knowledge Base, the AI creates a comprehensive, contextual response.
Knowledge Base retrieval works best with clearly structured documents and specific questions. For optimal results, ask direct questions about information likely to be in your documents.

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How to Recognize Knowledge Base Responses

When your AI assistant is using your Knowledge Base to answer questions, the experience looks noticeably different from regular AI responses. Here’s what to look for:

Progress Indicator

During retrieval, a progress indicator at the top of the assistant’s answer area shows real-time status updates like “Understanding query” and “Retrieving documents from Knowledge Base.”

Retrieval Completion

When retrieval completes, the progress indicator shows a filled icon with a message indicating how many documents were found, such as “Retrieved 3 documents from Knowledge Base.”

Multiple Retrieval Attempts

The assistant may perform multiple retrievals during a single response if it needs additional information or if initial results weren’t sufficient, with each attempt showing in the progress indicator.

Source References

The AI response often includes specific references to source documents, helping you understand where information originated and providing transparency about knowledge sources.
Example of Knowledge Base citation in AI response

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Asking Effective Knowledge Base Questions

To get the most from Knowledge Base retrieval, phrase your questions in ways that help the AI assistant find and use the right information.

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Common Questions

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Best Practices

Curate Your Knowledge Base

Keep your Knowledge Base focused and relevant. Include only documents directly related to the Space’s purpose to improve AI retrieval accuracy.

Update Documents Regularly

Maintain current versions of documents in your Knowledge Base to ensure the AI provides the most up-to-date information available.

Use Clear Document Naming

Name your Knowledge Base documents clearly and descriptively to help with organization and make references in AI responses more meaningful.

Test Different Question Types

Experiment with various question formats to discover what works best for retrieving specific types of information from your Knowledge Base.

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Adding Knowledge to a Space

To start using Knowledge Base retrieval in your work, you’ll need a Space with documents added to its Knowledge Base. Here’s what to know:
  • Use Existing Spaces: The easiest way to benefit from Knowledge Base retrieval is to use Spaces that colleagues in your organization have already created and shared with you
  • Join Team Spaces: Many organizations create specialized Spaces with rich Knowledge Bases for different departments or projects
  • Admin Permissions Required: If you want to build your own Knowledge Base, note that only Space admins can add or manage documents
  • Your Own Space: When you create a Space, you automatically become its admin
  • Simple Document Upload: Adding documents is as simple as uploading files through the Space Settings
For a more detailed look at how to add and manage documents in a Space’s Knowledge Base, see our page on Managing Knowledge Bases.

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Next Steps

Now that you understand Knowledge Base retrieval, you might want to explore: