Knowledge base
What a knowledge base is, how an AI phone agent answers from it, and how to write a good one.
The short answer
What is a knowledge base?
A knowledge base is an organized collection of the information a business uses to answer questions: hours, services, prices, policies, procedures and answers to common questions. Staff and customers can search it, and AI agents use it to answer callers. The agent retrieves the passages that match the caller's question and answers from them, which is why the quality of the knowledge base sets the quality of the agent's answers.
How an AI agent uses it
When a caller asks a question, the agent searches the knowledge base for the entries closest in meaning, not just in wording, and answers from what it found. This is often called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). In Daber AI, every entry needs a person's approval before the agent can use it; a draft entry is invisible to the agent. For lists such as a product catalog or a branch list, you can upload a CSV or Excel file that the agent filters and reads from on the call.
Example
A beauty salon's knowledge base has one entry per topic: opening hours, a price list, the cancellation policy, parking, and what to do before a treatment. A caller asks whether she can cancel the day before without paying. The agent finds the cancellation policy and answers from it, in the salon's own words.
What it means for a small business
Write the knowledge base before you point a number at the agent: an agent that has no written answer will not make one up, and it shouldn't. Start with the ten questions you answer most, one topic per entry, in plain sentences. Then read your call summaries each week; the questions that keep ending with "I'll pass that on" are the entries to add next.
Questions
What should go in a knowledge base for an AI receptionist?
The facts callers ask for: hours, location and parking, services and prices, booking and cancellation rules, payment options, and when to transfer to a person. Use your own words, the way you'd answer on the phone.
What happens when the answer isn't in the knowledge base?
A well-built agent says it doesn't know rather than guessing. Daber AI asks for clarification first, and if that doesn't help, hands the call to a person or takes a message, with the reason recorded on the call so you can add the missing entry.
Call the agent now
A real call, not a recording. Exactly what your callers would hear.
Have the agent call me
Leave a number — the agent calls you in under a minute.
Updated: