Start a conversation and get a useful answer

Start a new conversation

Choose New Chat in the sidebar, then type into the message box at the bottom and press Enter.

Start a new one when you change subject. Everything you have said so far stays available inside a conversation, which is what makes follow-up questions work — and it is also why an unrelated question lands better in a conversation of its own.

Say what you want, not just the subject

This is the difference between an answer you skim and an answer you use. Naming a topic gets you a summary of the topic; naming an outcome gets you the thing you actually needed.

• Instead of "the supplier contract" — "What in this supplier contract costs me money after year one?"
• Instead of "write about the launch" — "Write the three-sentence launch note I can paste into a company-wide email."
• Instead of "my calendar" — "What have I got on Thursday that I could move to make a two-hour block?"

Give the background it needs

Orsola knows what is in the conversation and what it can reach through your connected accounts. It does not know the things that live in your head. Worth saying out loud:

• Who it is for. A note to your manager and a note to a client are not the same note.
• What is already decided. Saves you rejecting three suggestions that were never available.
• What you cannot change. The budget, the date, the tool you are stuck with.
• The material. Attach the file rather than describing it — see add a document, photo, or spreadsheet.

Ask for the shape of answer you want

Ask for a form and you get that form: "as a table with a column for cost", "five bullets, no preamble", "one paragraph I can send as-is", "just the number".

If you do not say, you get prose of a length Orsola guesses at, which is the most common reason an answer feels not quite right.

Keep going in the same conversation

When an answer is close but not right, correct it where you are rather than starting again. "Shorter." "More formal." "You missed the renewal clause." "Same thing but for the Berlin office."

Orsola still has the earlier messages and any file you attached, so a correction is usually one short sentence — and it will be a better answer than a fresh attempt, because it has everything the first one had plus what you just told it.

If the answer is wrong rather than badly shaped, say what is wrong. "That date is not right, the deadline is the 14th" gets you a corrected answer; "try again" usually gets you the same answer in different words.

Where to go next

The sidebar has several agents in it, and the right one changes what you can ask for — choose the right agent for the job. If you asked for something and it has not come back, where your answers and results show up says where to look.