5 Key qualities to look for when choosing an AI assistant for your business

May 30, 2025

Microsoft Copilot has set a strong example of how AI can enhance productivity tools like Word and Excel. It’s a powerful option within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, offering users familiar ways to boost efficiency. 

However, when you're looking for an AI assistant to help your organization find, understand, and streamline access to knowledge across a wider range of systems and tools, it’s important to consider where Copilot may fall short. 

Because it’s closely tied to Microsoft’s ecosystem, Copilot can be less flexible in environments that rely on a mix of platforms, document types, and third-party tools. It also comes at a significant cost—typically priced on a per-user basis—which can create challenges when trying to scale AI assistance broadly across teams or departments. 

This article highlights what to look for in an AI assistant that actively supports knowledge discovery, security and operational efficiency.

Here are five essential qualities to consider when evaluating an AI assistant for your company: 

1. Seamless integration with your existing systems

No one wants a new system that lives in its own world. For an AI assistant to work effectively, it must connect directly to your existing tools – such as specialized systems, CRM, ERP, intranet and customer support platforms. 
 
Such integration allows for automation of time-consuming processes: retrieving information, updating statuses, responding to inquiries – all from one place. This improves response times, reduces manual work and enhances information flow. 

2. Security you can rely on

AI assistants often handle sensitive information – whether internal documents, customer data, or personal information. Security is therefore absolutely critical. 
 
The solution should offer end-to-end encryption, secure authentication mechanisms, controlled data flow, and comprehensive logging of all transactions. Equally important is compliance with GDPR, ISO 27001 or similar standards. 

3. Role-based access for secure and efficient use 

In an organization where different roles carry different responsibilities, role-based access control is crucial. It ensures that each user can only access the information they need – and nothing more. 
 
This reduces the risk of internal errors, ensures compliance and gives better control over information flow. 
 
A good AI assistant should integrate with existing authentication systems like Entra ID or other IAM solutions and offer flexible access control based on roles and groups. 

4. Source transparency builds trust and verifiability

An AI assistant that can’t explain where its answer comes from quickly becomes a liability. Especially in the B2B market, where decisions require documentation, transparency and traceability. 
 
The best solutions are those that can provide answers with clear references to the source material: documents, policies or databases. This builds user confidence and makes it easier to verify information. 

5. Editorial control of the Knowledge base

It might be tempting to give the AI assistant access to your entire SharePoint or document archive – the more data, the better the answers, right? In reality, this can be both inefficient and risky. 
 
To ensure quality and relevance, you should establish an editorial process to determine which sources the AI has access to. This means selecting content that is valid, updated and relevant, and making it available to the AI in a controlled manner. 

Connecting to SharePoint with control 

Most modern AI assistants can connect directly to SharePoint, but instead of providing broad access, you should actively select specific folders or documents. This way, you can: 

• Decide which documents should actually be indexed and used by the AI 
• Set up publishing routines where only approved versions are available 
• Avoid drafts, unfinished notes or confidential files being part of the AI’s training base 

Some solutions also offer an admin interface where you can easily publish or remove documents from the AI base without altering your SharePoint structure. 

The advantage: Security, quality and traceability 

By using SharePoint as a source with selective access, you gain: 
- Control over what the assistant actually knows 
- The ability to version control the content used 
- Reduced risk of incorrect or sensitive responses from the AI 
 
In short: You want an AI assistant that works with a curated and quality-assured knowledge library – not one that randomly crawls your entire SharePoint environment. 

Want to see how an AI assistant can work in your organization? Get in touch for a Readin Lookup demo.