The Assistant is a chat panel you can open from the Home page, from a Workspace document, or from inside a project. It answers questions from the sources you point it at, and when it's open inside a document it can see what you're working on. This article covers where to find it, how it differs from Ask AI, and what to ask it.
What it does
You type a question; you get an answer, with citations back to the material it used. It's a back-and-forth — you can follow up, push back, and refine, rather than getting one shot at a single output.
Two things shape the quality of the answer:
- The sources you select. The Assistant only reads what you point it at.
- Where you open it. Opened inside a document, it can see that document, so you can ask about the text in front of you.
Where to find it
On the Home page. The Ask anything box sits at the bottom of "What are we working on today?". Use it for a quick answer without opening anything — attach a file, confirm your Source Providers, and type a prompt.
In a Workspace document. Workspace is your private space in the left-hand navigation bar. Open any document there and the Assistant sits in the right-hand panel.
Inside a project. The Assistant is in the right-hand panel of every project document — a Pre-proposal activity, a Prepare and Plan output, or a section you're writing in the Write phase.
Assistant or Ask AI?
Both sit in the right-hand panel and they do different jobs. This is the distinction worth getting straight first.
The Assistant is a conversation alongside your draft. One answer at a time, which you read, follow up on, and copy into your document where you want it. Use it to ask a question, find evidence, or sanity-check a section without interrupting your writing.
Ask AI works on the text itself. Select a passage, give an instruction, and it returns three options to drop straight into the draft. Use it to write, rewrite, or transform a passage in place. The writing transformations — Expand, Summarize, Add Case Study, Add Statistics, Tone of Voice — live alongside it in the Write panel.
Short version: the Assistant answers you, Ask AI changes your text.
Using it inside a project
This is where it earns its keep. Open a section in the Write phase and the Assistant sits next to your storyboard and your draft — so it already has the bid question, the requirements, the evaluation criteria and the text you've written. You can ask about "this section" rather than re-explaining the opportunity every time.
The same applies to the pre-proposal activities and the Prepare and Plan documents. Rather than reading an output and starting again elsewhere, you interrogate and refine it where it sits.
One thing to know about sources in a project. Inside a project, you select from the Project Library or web search. If there's a library you want the Assistant to draw on, connect it to the Project Library first.
Four habits that get better answers
- Narrow your sources. Pointing at one project folder gets you specific, evidenced detail. Pointing at everything gets you a generic copy. Set your Source Providers each time — they don't carry over between sessions or between the Assistant and Ask AI.
- One job per prompt. Three questions in one message usually gets a shallow answer to all three.
- Say what good looks like. The format, the length, whether you want a table, whether you want everything cited.
- Use the past tense for evidence. "What we delivered at [project]" keeps answers grounded in what actually happened, rather than what you could offer.
Prompts to try
Understanding what a section has to do
- "Looking at the attached RFP, what is [bid question] really asking us to demonstrate?"
- "List every requirement this section needs to answer, with the reference for each one."
- "What are the buyer's pain points on this proposal, and which of them does this section touch?"
Finding evidence
- "Based on our library, do we have relevant experience for an NHS technology bid?"
- "Give specific evidence of what we delivered at [project name]" — then select that project folder in Source Providers.
Checking your own work
- "Read this section against the evaluation criteria and tell me where it would lose marks."
- "Summarize what's in this document so far and tell me what's missing."
- "Where does this contradict anything else in the draft?"
Positioning
- "What would our competitors likely emphasize, and how could we differentiate on [topic]?"
- "Interrogate [client]'s language and terminology across our previous submissions."
Saved Prompts
When a prompt works, save it. Saved Prompts are set up in the Knowledge Hub and are available in any Assistant session and in Ask AI.
The keyword search looks at both the title and the body, so a shared prefix pays off: name related prompts "Win theme 1 – …", "Win theme 2 – …" and typing win theme brings the whole set up together. Number multi-step sequences so you can run them in order.
Choosing your model
Research is the default and handles most tasks. Pro is more thorough, but slower and more verbose — save it for genuinely complex questions.
Tips and notes
- Tip. If an answer is thin, add sources before you rewrite the prompt. It's nearly always the material, not the wording.
- Note. Source Providers are set at the point of use. Selecting them in the Assistant doesn't carry them into Ask AI or into your next session.
- Tip. Your RFP documents follow you into every project view, so you can check a requirement against the source without leaving your draft.
- Tip. While a first draft or an analysis is generating, other actions may run slower. That's expected.