AI Assistant overview
What the AI Assistant does, what it can and cannot do, and the key ideas behind chats, agents, knowledge and confirmations.
What the AI Assistant is for
The AI Assistant (the a2N Assistant) lets you ask questions about your own company's data in plain language and get answers as text, tables, key figures, record cards and charts. You can ask in English, Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam or Urdu. It can also prepare a change for you, such as a new customer, a quotation, a purchase order or a CRM lead, and it saves that change only after you confirm it.
Typical questions are 'Show sales this month by customer', 'Show overdue invoices above AED 10,000', 'Show low stock', 'What is my leave balance?' and 'Explain INV-00032'.
The rules it works by
- It sees only what you may see. Every answer uses your own company, your permissions and your record access. If you cannot see salaries or a customer's phone number, neither can the assistant on your behalf. If you ask for something you may not see, it says 'You don't have permission to see that, so I can't answer it.'
- It never saves anything on its own. A change appears as a confirmation card. Nothing exists until you click Confirm & Create. Only the person who asked can confirm.
- Documents and records are data, not instructions. Text inside an uploaded file or a customer note is read as information; it does not give the assistant orders.
- A switch can turn it off. An administrator can switch the assistant off for the company, or switch off writes, files, knowledge or outside servers separately.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Chat | One conversation. You can rename, pin, archive, delete, duplicate, export and share it. |
| Engine | The built-in a2N engine answers common questions with no outside model. Anthropic Claude handles open-ended questions when a key is saved. |
| Smart routing | With the setting Smart, common questions are answered by the built-in engine and the rest go to Claude. |
| Agent | A specialised assistant (Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Accounting, HR and others). An agent can narrow what you may do through it, never widen it. |
| Tool | One thing the assistant can do, such as search customers or list overdue invoices. |
| Knowledge | Policies and manuals you upload. The assistant searches them and shows its sources. |
| MCP server | A source of tools. The built-in a2NSoft ERP server is always there; outside servers can be added. |
Who uses it
- Everyone with ai.use can ask questions, use My Files and Knowledge search, and see agents.
- ai.act lets you confirm changes the assistant proposes (and the tool's own permission, such as partner.manage, must also be held).
- ai.configure manages agents, knowledge, outside servers and settings.
- ai.activity reads the activity log and usage.
How it connects to other modules
The assistant reads from Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Accounting, HR, CRM and Projects through the same services those modules use, so figures match their own screens. When a change is confirmed it is created in the module that owns it, as a draft where the module has drafts. An administrator can use the Applications > AI Assistant page to switch Agents, MCP servers and Knowledge and files on or off.
Not available yet
Reading a vendor bill from an uploaded file and payment tools are not built. Retention and the daily action limit are stored as settings but are not enforced yet.