What is the maximum case size that Ask can support effectively?
Ask is designed to support large-scale cases containing millions of documents within our SaaS environment.
What is the maximum document text size Ask can search?
Ask indexes only the first ~200K text of a document. If a document has more than ~200K text, the content beyond this threshold is excluded from indexing.
What content does Ask analyze when generating responses?
Ask evaluates up to 20 references when generating a response, selecting those deemed most relevant to the submitted question. A subset of these references is then used for citation in the final answer.
How many documents does Ask return?
Ask returns up to 100 documents that best match the submitted question. From this set, it analyzes up to 20 references identified as the most relevant for answer generation. A subset of these references is then selected for citation in the final response.
What are the best practices for crafting effective questions for Ask?
Be explicit and specific
The more specific you are with the queries you pose to Ask, the more likely you will be to get helpful responses. It helps to avoid ambiguity.
Good: “Who oversaw handling of financial reporting such as income statement, balance sheet, for Enron?”
Avoid: “Who oversaw handling of reporting for the company?”
Narrow in scope and can have a clear answer.
Narrow questions improve focus, reduce ambiguity, and yield precise, actionable answers.
Good: “Were there any documents from finance raising concerns about improper financial reporting?”
Avoid: “Tell me everything about how the company handled its finances.”
Pose one single question one time.
It is better to use queries that pose single questions rather than queries that pose compound ones.
If the question you have in mind has two parts, ask each part as a separate query.
What types of questions are less effective when using Ask?
Avoid requests to identify “all” documents or “all” items in the case. E.g.:
“Give me all finance reports.”
“Find all insurance policies in 2025.”
“Retrieve all medical records in the case.”
Avoid questions requiring a broad analysis across multiple documents.
"Was there fraud at Enron?"
"Was Andy Fastow guilty?"
How should the “Additional Instructions” feature be used?
Additional Instructions enable users to guide Ask in performing further actions on the retrieved content, such as analysis, transformation, and formatting. In general, action and formatting directives should be kept separate from the main question. This approach improves clarity and helps ensure more accurate results.
For example, instead of combining everything into a single query: “Are there specific concerns regarding the accuracy, transparency, or integrity of Enron’s financial reporting practices? Return results and summarize it in 200 words.” It’s preferable to structure the request as follows:
Question:
“Are there specific concerns regarding the accuracy, transparency, or integrity of Enron’s financial reporting practices?”
Additional Instructions:
“Return the results and provide a 200-word summary.”
Does Ask support questions submitted in languages other than English?
Yes, you can find a list of languages in our About Ask article.
Does Ask retain a history of previously submitted questions and answers?
Yes, Ask keeps previous submitted questions in its sessions. Admins can also download Ask sessions from session logs. See About Ask for more information.
What is the difference between “Documents” and “References”?
References are excerpts derived from the source document. During data ingestion, Ask segments each document into multiple references to optimize performance.
Can Ask analyze multiple documents simultaneously?
Ask performs its analysis based solely on the top 20 retrieved references. These references could be from multiple documents, but it does not perform analysis beyond the top 20 references.
How can users validate the answers provided by Ask?
Answers can be validated in Ask using the citation feature. See Ask Citations.
Are questions I ask visible to other users who have access to the same project?
Users can only view the questions and answers they have personally submitted. Administrative users, however, have access to all submitted questions through session logs.
Can I control which users have access to Ask AI button?
Yes, Ask permission is set through user role. More information can be found in About Ask.
What’s the method Ask uses to retrieve documents before analyzing?
Ask uses semantic search, it retrieves a list of the of most semantically similar documents related to your question. For more details, see About Ask.