Asking well

Zoe answers best when it can tell which system, which record and which time window you mean. You do not need special phrasing or commands — you need enough detail that a new colleague could act on the request.

Give context

Say what you want done, where, and about what. Compare:

• Check the ticket — Zoe has to ask which one.
• Check INC0012345 in ServiceNow and tell me whether it has breached SLA — Zoe can act.

Three things carry most of the weight: the record identifier (a ticket, case or account number), the system when your organization has connected more than one, and the time window for anything that changes over time (this week, since Monday, the last 30 days).

If you opened a record from your queue, that record is bound to the conversation. While it is bound you can say this ticket, this incident, or just summarize, and Zoe grounds it to that record without asking.

Keep follow-ups in one conversation

A conversation carries its own history. Ask a follow-up in the same thread and Zoe still has the earlier answer, the record you were discussing, and any documents it already searched. Now draft a reply to the customer works because the customer is already established.

Start a New conversation when you change subject. A stale thread costs you accuracy — Zoe keeps trying to relate the new question to the old topic. Conversations title themselves from the opening message, so a clean split also makes your history easier to search later.

Zoe can also remember durable facts about you between conversations, but only when you confirm it. When Zoe proposes one, a card appears with Remember this? — you can edit the wording before saving, or choose No thanks. Everything saved is listed on the Memory page, where you can edit, Forget a single item, or Forget all.

Sources and citations

When Zoe answers from your organization's documents, the passages it used are numbered in the reply and listed in a Sources side panel. Each entry shows the file name, the repository it came from, and the heading or page where the passage sits, with the surrounding snippet underneath. Where the source has a secure web address the file name is a link and opens in a new tab.

Read the sources before you act on anything consequential. If the snippets do not support the answer, say so in the thread — that is not what the policy says, check again — rather than starting over.

Working with documents

You do not attach files to the composer. Zoe searches the document repositories your organization has published — an administrator uploads PDFs, Word files, text, Markdown and HTML in the Customer Portal, and Zoe searches whichever ones you are allowed to see. To steer a search, name the material: check the onboarding handbook, search the vendor contracts for the renewal date.

Two things that are not repositories but behave similarly:

• Microsoft 365 items. When Zoe reads one specific email, meeting or task for you, the side panel shows exactly what Zoe saw — sender, subject, received time, attachments, meeting time and location, or task due date.
• Documents Zoe produces. Ask for a spreadsheet, deck, PDF, Word document or CSV and Zoe drafts it first. The side panel shows a live preview while you refine it; Create turns the draft into a file and Download saves it. Generated files stay available for a limited time — the card shows the date — after which you ask Zoe to regenerate.

You can also ask for a chart. Charts render in the conversation and Pin to dashboard keeps one on your Dashboards page with live data.

When Zoe says it cannot do something

Zoe declines rather than improvising, and the wording tells you what to do next:

• Connect your account to continue — a system needs your own credentials. Select the Connect button on the card and complete the consent window. If your browser blocks it, use the Open the consent page link.
• This action isn't available for this integration — the connected system does not expose that capability.
• This feature isn't included in your organization's plan — ask your administrator to enable the module.
• Your organization's AI usage allowance has been reached for this period — usage is capped; your administrator can raise the limit.
• Approval required — Zoe has drafted a change and is waiting for you. See Records and approvals.

If Zoe simply does not know, it says so. That is the correct answer when your organization has not connected the relevant system or published the relevant document, and it is worth raising with your administrator rather than working around.