Let’s say you’ve just hired someone new. It’s their first day, and you need to show them the ropes: teach them about the business, what services you offer, how you deal with customers, and where to find the information they’ll need to answer questions.
Now imagine you only had to do that once — after which they’d remember everything, work 24/7, and always be in good humour.
That’s essentially what we’re doing when we build an AI Assistant — a digital team member, trained to understand the ins and outs of your business, whether you’re a local service provider in Kildare or a growing team elsewhere in Ireland.
In this post, we’ll show you how we do it here at GBA Solutions — the real process behind how our assistants (like NatterNinja) are trained up to understand your business and respond to real customer questions.
Step 1: Teach It What You Know (AKA the Knowledge Base)
Every AI Assistant needs a knowledge base — that’s what we call the ‘database’ of information about your business.
It might include:
Website content (services, pricing, about info, FAQs)
Internal documents (HR policies, onboarding guides, training notes)
Product data, menus, delivery details, or anything else you’d usually explain to a customer or staff member
We use this to “train” the assistant — not in a. very complex way, but just by making sure it has access to all the right information. Just like you would with a new hire.
Simple Setup: Great for Small Sites
If you’ve got a small website — maybe 5 to 10 pages — then you’re in luck. This setup is quick and budget-friendly.
Here’s how it works:
We scrape your website — that means we automatically pull in your text from key pages such as “About Us”, “Services”, and “Contact” and any other product or service pages you might have.
The assistant reads that content every time someone asks it a question. We send everything (the full knowledge base) along with the user’s query to the AI engine.
The AI then generates a reply based on what it knows. And here’s the clever bit — the assistant doesn’t just know your business; it also has a broad understanding of the world. So if you’re a coach offering CBT, or an aromatherapist working with essential oils, you don’t need to teach it the basics. It already understands those subjects and can blend that knowledge with your own content to answer questions naturally and confidently.
This approach is:
Fast to deploy — you can do it yourself with NatterNinja
Affordable — because the tech requirements are low
Perfect for Irish service providers — tradespeople, coaches, therapists and anyone with a straightforward business site.
If your site is small and you just want a smart helper to handle common questions, you can set it up yourself right now using NatterNinja — no tech skills needed.
Get started here »
Advanced Setup: For Bigger Businesses or More Complex Use Cases
Larger websites, complex services, or internal-facing assistants need a more involved approach.
Imagine you gave your new employee a filing cabinet of documents. You wouldn’t expect them to memorise every word. Instead, you’d want them to understand the structure and quickly find the right page when a customer asks something. That’s what our advanced AI Assistant setup does.
Here’s a simplified version of the process:
We split your content into chunks — breaking it down into smaller, digestible sections (usually one or maybe two paragraphs each).
Each chunk is turned into an embedding — a mathematical fingerprint that helps the AI understand its meaning.
These embeddings are stored in a vector database (we use Pinecone) which is a high speed and very smart filing system that organises information by meaning, not just keywords.
When someone asks a question, we search the vector database to find the most relevant chunks — just like your smart employee pulling the right page from a filing cabinet.
The we send only those chunks of information to the AI model to generate the answer.
This setup is ideal for:
Internal HR assistants (e.g. answering staff queries about company policy document or procedures)
Online shops with a lot of products and FAQs
Customer support assistants who need to look up detailed info on pricing, availability, processes or delivery
If you’ve got documents, policies, FAQs, or hundreds or thousands of pages — we can help you break them down and structure them so your assistant can find and use them properly. You don’t need to know what an embedding or a vector database is — that’s our job.
How We Keep The Responses on Track: Prompts, Tone, and Temperature
Just like training a human, it’s not just what you give them — it’s how you instruct them. With AI, we shape how the assistant behaves using three key tools:
System Prompt
This sets the assistant’s “personality”. For example:
“You are a friendly and professional assistant working for a local Irish business. Always be helpful, polite, and accurate.”
Temperature
This setting controls how “creative” the assistant is. A low temperature keeps things stable, factual, and precise — great for answering questions where you want reliability and consistency.
A higher temperature makes the assistant more conversational and imaginative — ideal for marketing, light-hearted messages, or situations where tone really matters.
Most of the time, we aim for a balanced middle ground. You want the assistant to be friendly and approachable, but not making things up or straying off-message. The trick is to sound human without losing trust, and that’s something we fine-tune during setup – especially in balancing both the Prompts and Temperature.
Tone of Voice
We match your brand’s style — formal or informal, technical or plain-spoken. Want it to sound like your receptionist? Or more like you? Want to make sure it yes proper ‘Irish’ spelling and phrases rather than UK or American ones? Yes, we can do that.
So, What Should You Do Now?
If your website is small and straightforward — give NatterNinja a go. You can get started yourself and be up and running in no time. The great thing is that it’s always free until is starts adding real value to your site. Click here to try it out »
If your needs are a bit more involved — internal tools, large documents, complex services — that’s where we come in.
Whether you’re a solopreneur in Galway or running a growing team in Dublin, we’ll help you structure your knowledge, set everything up, and tailor the assistant to suit your Irish business perfectly.
No fuss. No tech headaches. Just a clever, helpful assistant that takes the pressure off you and your team.
Want to Know More?
In upcoming posts, we’ll cover:
How to get better responses by tweaking your prompts
Real-world use cases where AI Assistants shine
How to build a solid knowledge base
The magic of integrations (calendars, payments, CRM and more)
For now, have a chat with the assistant on our site — or get in contact and let’s see what we can build together.