AI Answers
AI Answers lets you ask questions in plain language and get direct, relevant responses — all drawn from the content already in your Roundtable space. No searching, no sorting through results. Just ask.
📚What content does AI Answers use?
AI Answers draws from the content you already have access to in Roundtable:
- Discussions — posts and comments
- Events — details about past and upcoming events
- Resources — uploaded files, including audio transcripts and text extracted from images
- Documents — Roundtable documents you can access
- Meeting transcripts — from recorded Roundtable video meetings, with speaker attribution
- Connected websites — publicly accessible external sites your Space Managers have chosen to connect
AI Answers does not browse the open internet. It searches your Roundtable content plus the specific external websites your space has deliberately connected — nothing else. When an answer draws on a connected website, the citation shows you which site it came from.
| ✨ RT Tip: The Roundtable Help Center is a connected website on all live spaces, which means you can ask AI Answers product questions — "how do I schedule a post?" — and get an answer with a link to the help article, without leaving your space. |
See Connected Websites for how sites get connected and who can do it.
🧭 Your space's content vs. Roundtable's product help
AI Answers pulls from two different kinds of sources, and it's useful to know which is which.
Your space's content is everything your community has created — posts, comments, events, resources, documents, and meeting transcripts. This is what AI Answers is primarily for: catching up on a topic, finding a decision, or surfacing something buried across several discussions.
Roundtable's Help Center is connected as an external website on all live spaces. That means you can also ask AI Answers how the product works — "how do I export poll results?", "who can archive a resource?" — and get an answer drawn from our documentation.
Every answer cites its sources, so you can always see which bucket a given answer came from.
|
If you want to know… |
Ask… |
Where the answer comes from |
| What your community decided or discussed | "What did we agree on about the intake process?" | Your space content |
| Where a file or record lives | "Do we have a template for quarterly reporting?" | Your space content |
| How a Roundtable feature works | "How do I schedule a post?" | Roundtable Help Center |
| What a role or permission allows | "Can a Viewer comment on posts?" | Roundtable Help Center |
| ✨ RT Tip: If you get a product answer when you want your community's answer, add the context to your question — "in this space," "in our working group," "according to our guidance" — and AI Answers will weigh your own content more heavily. |
| ✨ RT Tip: The reverse is true too. If you're trying to learn the product and keep getting your colleagues' discussions, try phrasing it as a how-to: "how do I…" rather than "what's our process for…". |
Why a Help Center answer might show up unexpectedly
If nobody in your space has written about a topic, AI Answers will fall back to what it can find — and on a product question, that's usually our documentation. That's working as intended. If the answer isn't what you needed, AI Answers can also draft a post so you can ask your community directly.
🔍How is AI Answers different from keyword search?
Keyword search asks you to think of the right terms, then hands you a list of results to sort through.
AI Answers works more like asking a knowledgeable colleague who's read everything in your space.
Keyword Search
"Housing policy" → Documents to review
AI Answers
"What are the key points from our recent housing policy discussions?" → a direct summary
✨ RT Tip: AI Answers is especially useful when you're not sure of the exact terms to search for, or when the answer spans multiple conversations or documents. ✨
❓Is it personalized?
Yes. AI Answers tailors responses using context from your profile — like your role, organization, and location — so answers are more relevant to your specific responsibilities.
🌐 Which spaces does AI Answers search?
A new AI Answers thread searches everything you have access to, across every space you belong to. You don't have to guess which space holds the answer before you ask.
If you want to narrow things down, you can apply a space filter to focus a query — and adjust that filter on follow-up messages in the same thread.
| ✨ RT Tip: Searching everywhere widens the search, not your access. AI Answers still only ever surfaces content you already have permission to see. |
💬 Is AI Answers the same for everyone?
Everyone in your space draws from the same knowledge base, so the underlying information is consistent. Responses may vary based on how a question is phrased or individual profile context, but the content behind the answers is the same for all members.
🔒Privacy and security
- Access controls — AI Answers only surfaces content you already have permission to see.
- Data isolation — your space's content is never shared externally and is never mixed with another organization's content.
- Connected websites are read-only and public — a connected website is a site your Space Managers chose to make searchable. Roundtable reads publicly accessible pages from it. Nothing from your space is sent to that website.
- Secure processing — all data is handled in encrypted environments with strict access controls, running on AWS infrastructure consistent with our GovCloud environment.
🕑Conversation history
You can review your previous AI conversations at any time. Your conversation history is private to you — it can't be viewed by other members or admins.
💡Prompts to try with AI Answers
Not sure where to start? These prompts work across teams and topic areas — just swap in your own context!
|
🗂️ Catch up quickly: Get up to speed on a topic or project
"What decisions have been made about [topic] so far?"
|
📋 Prep for a meeting: Summarize what your group discussed last time
"What did we cover in our last meeting on [topic]?"
|
|
🔎 Surface buried info: Find answers across multiple resources at once
"What guidance exists in our space about [policy or process]?"
|
🙋Onboard faster: Get oriented when you're new to a space or project
"What are the main priorities or goals this group is working on?"
|
|
📣Consolidate feedback: Gather input from across discussions in one place
"What concerns or suggestions have members raised about [topic]?"
|
📅 Review past events: Get a recap without hunting through notes
"What were the key takeaways from [event name or type]?"
|
|
🤝Coordinate across teams: Find out who's working on what
"Who in this space has been involved in work related to [topic]?"
|
📊 Track progress: Check in on where things stand
"What's the current status of [initiative or project]?"
|
👍 Providing feedback
AI Answers may not always reflect the most complete or current information — generated responses can occasionally contain errors, especially with complex or ambiguous content. Your feedback helps improve it for everyone:
- Quick rating — use the thumbs up/down buttons on any response
- Detailed feedback — add specific comments about what worked or didn't
- Report concerns — for urgent issues or inaccurate information, reach out to support@civicroundtable.com
❓Troubleshooting
- AI Answers can't find content I know exists — it may occasionally miss relevant information. Try rephrasing your question, or contact support if the issue persists.
- I want to turn off AI Answers for myself or my members — we understand there are situations where AI use may not be appropriate. Reach out to support@civicroundtable.com and we'll help.