Knowledge assistants
Connect an assistant to reviewed business information and useful destinations. Plan what it should say when information is missing instead of encouraging invented answers.
HanovaDevs / Applied automation
AI Automation & Assistants.
Useful automation. A human still in the loop.
Useful assistants and connected workflows built around approved information, defined permissions and a clear route back to a person.
01 / Understand the business02 / Build with purpose03 / Hand over with clarity
Start with the right problem
Less repetitive work. More considered decisions.
Automation should make a specific task easier, not make the process harder to understand. We start with a narrow use case, review the information and tools involved, and agree where an automated response ends and human responsibility begins.
What comes together
Considered in detail.
Connected by design.
The right result needs more than one isolated deliverable. These workstreams help shape a coherent engagement.
Workflow connections
Scope integrations around clear triggers, inputs and expected outputs. Authentication, retries and failure visibility matter as much as the successful run.
Permission & review paths
Define which actions are allowed and which require a person’s approval. Sensitive or consequential actions need controls beyond a friendly chat interface.
Evaluation & fallback
Test realistic questions, ambiguous requests and failure conditions. Provide clear fallback information and a reliable human handoff where the automated path is not appropriate.
What could we make together?
A service is a starting point.
Here’s what it can become.
Find the kind of project you have in mind. These are possible engagement types; the brief decides the exact deliverables.
01
Website knowledge assistants
Answer common visitor questions from approved business information.
Reviewed sources · Follow-up questions · Contact handoff
Discuss this project type02
Internal knowledge tools
Help a team locate and interpret approved procedures and information.
Source boundaries · Access rules · Useful references
Discuss this project type03
Workflow integrations
Connect recurring handoffs between supported tools.
Triggers · Validation · Approvals and recovery
Discuss this project type04
Enquiry intake assistants
Collect useful context before passing a request to the right person.
Scoped questions · Consent · Acknowledged handoff
Discuss this project type05
Document-assisted workflows
Support review of agreed document types with human decision ownership.
Input limits · Structured drafts · Review checkpoints
Discuss this project type06
Assistant reliability reviews
Evaluate an existing assistant before expanding its autonomy.
Test questions · Failure paths · Improvement priorities
Discuss this project typeWhere are you starting from?
Choose the situation closest to yours to see how the work can begin.
A possible starting point · 01
Turn repeated questions into useful next steps.
Help visitors understand services or products using approved information, with concise answers and a contact path that does not pretend to be a confirmed booking.
- Reviewed knowledge and boundaries
- Conversation and fallback design
- Visitor-approved contact handoff
A possible starting point · 02
Connect the handoffs that slow the team down.
Choose one recurring process and define the systems, records and approvals involved. Keep failure and recovery behaviour visible to the responsible people.
- Trigger and data-flow mapping
- Integration and permission review
- Retry and exception handling
A possible starting point · 03
Find the gaps before adding more autonomy.
Review an existing assistant’s information, claims and allowed actions. Test how it handles missing context, prompt manipulation and unavailable services.
- Representative evaluation questions
- Action and data-boundary review
- Prioritised reliability improvements
10 familiar challenges / practical responses
Sound familiar?
Let’s work through it.
See how we would approach the problem—and what we would check before calling the work complete.
Find the right level of help ↓01Our team answers the same questions repeatedly.
Our approach
Build a bounded assistant around reviewed information and useful source destinations.
How we check it
Evaluate representative questions, incomplete requests and cases not covered by the sources.
02The assistant confidently invents business information.
Our approach
Define approved sources, explicit unknown responses and a human escalation path instead of rewarding confident guesses.
How we check it
Test unsupported claims, conflicting information and attempts to override instructions.
03Enquiries reach us without enough context.
Our approach
Ask a small set of relevant follow-up questions, then let the visitor review what will be shared.
How we check it
Verify the handoff contains the approved details and no unnecessary conversation data.
04Automation fails silently when an API is unavailable.
Our approach
Make timeouts, retries, failure states and the responsible operator visible in the workflow.
How we check it
Test unavailable services, malformed responses and retry exhaustion.
05We are worried about sensitive information reaching a model.
Our approach
Identify the data needed for the task, minimise it and review the selected provider’s processing terms before integration.
How we check it
Inspect request examples and confirm excluded data is not sent.
06The assistant can take actions without enough oversight.
Our approach
Define allowed tools and require explicit approval for consequential actions, with enforcement outside the model.
How we check it
Test denied actions, missing approval and attempts to bypass the controls.
07One request can create duplicate tasks or messages.
Our approach
Design duplicate-request handling and clear state transitions at the integration boundary.
How we check it
Replay a representative request and check the agreed duplicate-handling behaviour.
08Live AI outages leave visitors at a dead end.
Our approach
Provide clearly labelled reviewed information, preserve drafts and offer an independent contact route.
How we check it
Simulate provider failures and complete the fallback journey.
09We have no way to judge answer quality.
Our approach
Create evaluation examples for correctness, source use, escalation and the business task being supported.
How we check it
Review outputs against the examples before and after significant changes.
10Nobody owns the assistant after launch.
Our approach
Assign source-review, error-review, cost and escalation responsibilities alongside operating notes.
How we check it
Agree a review cadence and rehearse who responds to a failed workflow.
A scope that fits the situation
The right level of help.
A purposeful next step.
You may need an independent review, a defined build or a focused improvement. Start with the work that matters now, with responsibilities and boundaries agreed.
Talk through the options ↗Use-case discovery
For a team exploring where automation is actually useful.
- Workflow and risk map
- Data, provider and human-review boundaries
Assistant or workflow build
For a bounded task with approved information.
- A scoped assistant or integration
- Evaluation cases and fallback journeys
Reliability improvement
For an assistant that needs better controls.
- Source, permission and failure-path review
- Prioritised fixes and regression examples
From the first conversation to delivery
Know what happens next.
Review points make decisions visible. Scope, dependencies and feedback responsibilities shape the delivery plan.
- 01
Choose one useful task
Map the workflow, available information and consequences of an incorrect action.
- 02
Define the boundaries
Agree approved sources, tool permissions, consent and human review.
- 03
Build & evaluate
Implement the scoped workflow and test representative success and failure paths.
- 04
Monitor & improve
Document fallback behaviour, operating responsibilities and review needs.
Designed to be useful after delivery
A handover.
Not a mystery.
Know what you own, what your team can change and who is responsible for the next update. The proposal sets out files, access, documentation and support.
Model APIsReviewed knowledgeWorkflow integrationsHuman approvalEvaluation
Third-party fees and ongoing work are discussed separately.
Your scoped handover
- A defined use case and workflow boundary
- Approved knowledge or integration sources
- Assistant or workflow implementation in scope
- Evaluation examples and fallback behaviour
- Operating notes and human-review responsibilities
Quality is part of the work
Grounded information
Check how answers relate to approved sources and how unknowns are handled.
Action safety
Review permissions, explicit confirmation and human escalation before consequential writes.
Failure recovery
Test unavailable services, timeouts, malformed inputs and repeated requests.
See the thinking in practice
Built here. Explained clearly.
Explore the challenge, delivered interface and evidence behind the story. Each project has its own context and outcomes.
An in-house assistant on this website
Meet Aria
Aria explains our company and products, offers reviewed site information when live AI is unavailable, and prepares consent-based enquiries. Use the Ask Aria control to try the experience.
Discuss an assistant project ↗Explore the implementation
In-house examples show an approach and its boundaries. Your scope and results will depend on your requirements and operating context.
Evidence instead of empty promises
Define what better means.
Then check the work.
A finished deliverable and a business result are different things. We agree what can be tested directly and what needs observation after release.
- 01
Before automation
Record representative tasks, current handoffs and the consequences of an incorrect answer or action.
- 02
Before release
Test source grounding, unknown answers, denied actions, outages and visitor-approved handoff.
- 03
During operation
Review sampled answers, escalations, errors and provider usage. Time savings need a measured baseline, not a model-generated estimate.
You do not need a perfect brief
Bring the context.
We’ll help shape the plan.
A few useful inputs make the first conversation more specific. If something is missing, we can identify it together.
Share your brief ↗Use redacted examples where needed. Don’t send passwords or private customer records in an enquiry.
- 01
One recurring task
A concrete task, the people involved and what a useful result would look like.
- 02
Approved information
The business content or procedures the system may use, with an owner who can review them.
- 03
Data & action boundaries
What must never be shared, what requires approval and who receives an escalation.
- 04
Existing integrations
Supported tools, available APIs and a safe way to test without affecting live users.
Useful answers before we start
Less uncertainty.
A better first conversation.
Have a question specific to your project? Tell us the context and we’ll discuss the next step.
Ask the team ↗What types of projects does your ai automation & assistants service cover?
Possible project types include website knowledge assistants, internal knowledge tools, workflow integrations, enquiry intake assistants, document-assisted workflows, assistant reliability reviews. We define the deliverables, dependencies and acceptance criteria in the proposal for your project.
Will an AI assistant always give the right answer?
No. Model outputs can be inaccurate or incomplete. We define information boundaries, evaluation cases and fallback or human-review paths rather than promise perfect answers.
Can an assistant book calls or take business actions?
Potentially, if the required integrations, permissions and confirmation flow are in scope. A model response alone is not evidence that a booking, payment or database write succeeded.
What happens to information sent to the model?
Processing and retention depend on the selected provider and account terms. We identify the data involved and discuss privacy requirements before choosing the integration. Secrets and unnecessary sensitive data should not be sent.
Do you build voice or calling workflows?
Voice and calling use cases can be discussed during discovery. Provider capabilities, consent requirements, business rules and handoff behaviour need to be established before any particular integration or launch is promised.
How are cost and delivery dates agreed?
We review the requirements, integrations, available assets and review responsibilities before proposing a price and delivery plan. The website estimator is an illustrative planning tool, not a binding quotation or a promised delivery date.
What happens at handover?
The proposal defines source and design access, documentation, account ownership, licensing and any training or support. Third-party subscriptions, maintenance and future feature work are identified separately rather than assumed to be included.
Your next project starts with a conversation
Bring us the challenge.
Let’s make a clear plan.
Tell us what you need to improve, what you have already tried and what matters most.
Let’s discuss your project ↗