Answers

Our institutional knowledge sits in people's heads and scattered files. What has to change before AI can use any of it?

Zachary King, Cofounder and CEO at Works · LinkedIn

Short answer

Nothing about the AI has to change. The knowledge does. It has to move out of heads and scattered files into one place the AI can read: the company brain. That's an organised repository of how your business works, such as pricing, standards, how you talk to customers and what good looks like, usually in plain markdown or HTML files.

Do this week

Start small. Write one file called "How we quote", as you'd explain it to a new employee. Feed it to the AI you already use and ask for a draft.

Transcript

Our institutional knowledge sits in people's heads and scattered files across the business. What has to change before AI can use any of it?

Nothing about the AI has to change. But the knowledge has to move out of the heads, out of the scattered files, and into one place where the AI can access it. That's the brain, the company brain. And it's less mystical than it sounds. One organised repository holding all of the knowledge and context about how your business actually works: your pricing, your standards, how you talk to customers, what good looks like. Plain files, usually markdown or HTML, deliberately structured.

The model is not the constraint. The blank context behind the model is. Before we had ours, every proposal started from a blank page. Now AI assembles a first draft before we've even reviewed the call. It pulls in offers, pricing, our voice, context from the sales call. Same model that everyone else has, very different outcomes.

So, start stupidly small with this. One file called "How we quote", written like how you'd explain it to a new employee. Feed that to the AI you already use and ask it for a draft. The whole concept clicks in just 20 minutes.

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