A knowledge assistant should help a person find and understand relevant information. That is a different job from producing a confident answer to every question. In healthcare operations, that difference matters.
Choose the source of truth
Start by identifying the approved policies, procedures, or reference documents the assistant may use. Assign ownership for each source and decide how updates, retirement, and conflicting versions will be handled.
Make retrieval inspectable
A retrieval-augmented workflow can provide selected source material to a model. The interface should make those sources visible to the user and make it practical to inspect the original passage. Retrieval does not guarantee correctness: the wrong passage, missing context, or an outdated policy can still lead to an unsuitable answer.
Access belongs in the design
An assistant should not become a new route around existing information permissions. Consider identity, document access, indexing, logs, and connected tools together. Test whether a user can retrieve information they are not entitled to see.
Evaluate difficult questions
- Questions with no answer in the approved sources.
- Ambiguous or conflicting policy language.
- Requests that fall outside the assistant’s intended task.
- Attempts to override the system’s instructions or retrieve restricted material.
Plan for uncertainty
A useful assistant can point to a source, ask for clarification, or route the question to an appropriate person. It should not turn a lack of evidence into an invented policy or a clinical recommendation.
Reference: the NIST AI Risk Management Framework is a broader resource for thinking about AI risks throughout a system’s lifecycle.