Smith conversations are where you interact with multiple AI models to get intelligent, verifiable answers grounded in your organization's data—with complete privacy and security. This article covers everything from starting your first conversation to managing chat history, comparing models, and exporting results with full citation trails.
What Are Conversations?
Smith conversations aren't a research library or general-purpose chatbot. They're a secure intelligence layer between your teams and your enterprise systems. When you ask a question about what's happening in your organization—what you're doing, why something happened, or what your data shows—Smith answers from your actual files, with full citations and transparency.
Each conversation maintains context across multiple exchanges. You can ask follow-ups and Smith remembers previous answers. A single conversation can easily contain 30 or more question-and-answer turns while preserving full context throughout.
Three Sources of Intelligence
Your Organization's Data
Files selected from your workspace via Deep Retrieval
Web Search
Real-time external information when needed
Multi-Model Reasoning
Cross-model comparison for verified answers
Enterprise Security
ISO 27001 & SOC 2 Type II certified
Your Data Protected
Never used for model training
Your Privacy
Completely private workspace and history
Starting a Conversation
To start querying your data in Smith:
Select Your AI Model
Use the model dropdown to choose which AI will respond. Your base package includes Gemini 2.5 Pro, GPT-5.1, and Claude Haiku 4.5. Additional premium models are available as add-ons—we continuously integrate the latest high-performing models as they become available. Current examples include Claude Opus 4.6 (for nuanced reasoning and long documents), Gemini 3.1 Pro (massive context windows, 1M+ tokens), DeepSeek V3.2 (fast queries and code), and GPT-5.2. You can also enable multi-model comparison in settings to query multiple models simultaneously and compare their responses side-by-side.
Select Workspace Files (Optional)
If you want Smith to search your organization's data, check the boxes next to files or folders in the file tree on the left. Smith uses Deep Retrieval to intelligently find relevant information across your selected documents. Note that selecting files adds processing time—larger files or those with images may take longer. You can also attach specific files to individual prompts using the + icon without modifying your file tree selection.
Apply a Persona (Optional)
Select a persona if you want the AI to respond from a specific perspective or expertise level. Personas shape how the AI interprets and answers your questions.
Type Your Question and Send
Enter your question in the input field and press Enter or click send. Smith streams responses in real-time as they're generated.
Pro Tips for Better Conversations
Pro Tips for Better Conversations
- Start broad, then refine: Begin with a general question about your organization and use follow-ups to dig into specifics.
- Be specific about format: Tell Smith how you want the response structured (bullet points, detailed analysis, step-by-step instructions).
- Ask for sources: Request that Smith cite the files it's referencing by asking "What sources did you use?" or "Which documents support this answer?" You'll get direct links to your source files.
- Compare models: Select 2-3 models for the same question to see different reasoning approaches and choose the best answer for your use case.
- Select files strategically: Choose specific files or folders when you need verified insights from your organization; deselect all files when you need general knowledge or web research for faster responses.
File Selection and Deep Retrieval
When you select files from your workspace, Smith searches them using Deep Retrieval—a method that intelligently finds relevant information across your documents and grounds answers in that actual data. Your files are stored securely on a dedicated Microsoft Azure instance, encrypted both at rest and in transit.
Your organization's data is never used to train or improve AI models. When answers cite your files, those citations are clickable links to the source documents, giving you complete transparency about where every answer comes from.
File Selection: With vs Without
- Accesses: Your organization's proprietary workspace files (only what you select)
- Best for: Verified intelligence, compliance-critical research, internal decision support
- Search method: Deep Retrieval with full citation trails
- File types: .pdf, .docx, .doc, .csv, .xls, .xlsx, .txt, .json, .md, .sql, images, .html, .py, .pptx (more coming soon)
- Privacy: Files stay in your private workspace. Only you and admins (with strict access controls) can see them.
- Accesses: AI knowledge + web search only
- Best for: General questions, external research, market intelligence
- Search method: Real-time web scraping
- Speed: Faster responses
- Privacy: No workspace files are accessed or transmitted.
Select or deselect files anytime during conversations to switch between organizational and external intelligence sources
Fast Indexing
Files ingest in seconds
Auto-Sync
Files sync every 24 hours
Private & Certified
ISO 27001 & SOC 2 Type II
Your Privacy and Security
Each user in Smith has a completely private workspace and chat history. Only authorized administrators at your organization can access your files or conversations—and only through a secure administrator portal with a full audit trail showing who accessed what, when, and why. Your individual conversations are never monitored by default. They're yours alone.
Smith employees cannot access your data or document contents by default. Any employee access is strictly controlled and requires explicit authorization for specific security, compliance, or support needs. Your data stays in your organization.
Admin Audit Logs for Governance
Authorized admins can access usage logs through the profile menu (top-right corner) under Options. These logs are strictly for organizational governance—IT compliance, legal hold, and security audits. They provide visibility into usage patterns and access history, not surveillance of individual conversations. Your private chats remain private.
Working with Conversation Threads
Conversations maintain context across multiple exchanges. When you ask a follow-up question, Smith remembers the conversation history and uses that context to provide more relevant answers. You can reference earlier responses by name or topic and have natural, flowing discussions that build on each other.
The Memory setting in your account controls how much context Smith retains across conversations. When enabled, Smith maintains your conversation history to provide more personalized and contextual responses over time.
Comparing Multiple Models
One of Smith's key strengths is multi-model reasoning. You can enable multi-model comparison in your settings to query multiple AI models at once and see their responses side-by-side. This is valuable for verifying answers, exploring different perspectives on a problem, or choosing the best response for your specific need.
Keep in mind that querying multiple models simultaneously takes longer than using a single model.
When to Compare Models
- Verify critical decisions: See how different models approach important analyses to ensure recommendation quality.
- Complex reasoning tasks: Compare approaches to nuanced business problems or interpret ambiguous organizational data.
- Content generation: See different writing styles for reports, communications, or content projects.
- Accuracy validation: Cross-check critical calculations, compliance interpretations, or factual claims across multiple models.
Available AI Models
Claude
Complex reasoning and analysis
Haiku 4.5 (base) / Opus 4.6 (add-on)
GPT
Creative problem-solving
GPT-5.1 (base) / GPT-5.2 (add-on)
Gemini
Fast and efficient
2.5 Pro (base) / 3.1 Pro (add-on)
Expanding Lineup: We continuously integrate the latest high-performing models as they become available. Additional options like DeepSeek V3.2, Claude Opus 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro are available as add-ons.
Zero Lock-In & Data Ownership
Zero Lock-In & Data Ownership
Your organization owns your data completely. Smith operates on month-to-month agreements with zero lock-in—you can export your data or migrate to another system at any time. Your data is never used to train models, and you maintain absolute control over what information Smith can access and how it's used.
- Complete data portability: Export your conversations and workspace files anytime.
- No proprietary lock-in: Month-to-month terms, cancel anytime.
- Your data stays yours: Never used for model training or sold to third parties.
Getting Citations for Your Answers
When Smith answers a question using your workspace files, the answer is grounded in your actual data. You can ask Smith "What sources did you use?" or "Cite your sources" and it will list the specific files and sections it referenced, with direct links back to those documents. This gives you complete transparency—you always know exactly where every answer comes from.
Exporting Conversations
You can export conversations to share or save them. Smith currently supports Word and PDF formats, and you can copy responses directly to your clipboard. Additional export formats are coming soon.
Word Document
Export the full conversation as a formatted Word document with proper structure.
PDF Document
Export as PDF with locked formatting for sharing and archival.
Copy to Clipboard
Copy responses or entire conversations to paste elsewhere.
Additional Formats
CSV, Excel, and PowerPoint export options coming soon.
Managing Your Chat History
All your conversations are saved in your chat history. You can search for conversations by keyword or date, resume any previous conversation, delete individual chats you no longer need, or clear your entire history at once.
Search Conversations
Use the search bar to find conversations by keywords, topics, or date.
Resume a Conversation
Click on any conversation to open it and continue where you left off.
Delete Individual Conversations
Delete conversations you no longer need. Smith will ask for confirmation.
Clear All History
Remove your entire chat history at once. This action cannot be undone.
Coming Soon: Chat Organization
Coming Soon The ability to rename conversations and organize your chat history is coming soon.
Advanced Settings: Creativity & Memory
Smith provides granular controls to customize how AI models respond to your specific needs, ensuring answers match your use case whether you need factual precision or creative exploration.
Temperature Control
The Temperature setting affects how focused or exploratory the AI's responses are. Adjust this setting to match your task:
- Low temperature (0.0) produces focused, deterministic answers ideal for factual queries, compliance reviews, and analytical work.
- Medium temperature (0.5) balances consistency with flexibility for general-purpose analysis.
- High temperature (1.0) encourages creative, varied responses useful for brainstorming, strategy development, and exploratory thinking.
Memory: Personalized Intelligence
When Memory is enabled in your settings, Smith learns from your interactions and adapts to your role, preferences, and communication style. Smith remembers context across conversations, anticipating your needs and providing increasingly personalized responses tailored to your organization.
Maximizing Conversation Quality
Best Practices
- Provide organizational context: Give Smith relevant background about your company structure, goals, and challenges.
- Use examples from your data: Reference specific documents or metrics from your workspace to anchor the conversation.
- Ask for clarification: If a response isn't quite right, ask Smith to rephrase, expand, or adjust approach rather than starting over.
- Request sources first: Always ask "What sources did you use?" for answers that matter—verification builds confidence in Smith's intelligence.
- Build iteratively: Use follow-ups to deepen analysis, not just ask new questions. Smith improves as context accumulates.
- Compare models strategically: Use multi-model comparison for important decisions where multiple perspectives add confidence.
Coming Soon: New Capabilities
Shared Workspaces
Share workspace folders with team members for cross-team collaboration, folder sync, and joint analysis of organizational data.
EBM Suite Integration
Direct integration with Ontario, Catalyst, and other EBM products with unified RAG for seamless cross-product intelligence.
Autonomous Agents & Insights
Agents that execute tasks autonomously, predictive actions based on your data, and automated ROI analysis.
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Using and Creating Prompts
Explore Smith's prompt library and create reusable prompts for common tasks.
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