Enabling Chat

Learning Team

The functionality described in this article is available as part of our Fiano release and will not be available if your Practifi instance is not upgraded to this release.

Overview

Chat is a conversational AI assistant built directly into Practifi that gives your team an easy way to ask questions about clients, prospects, and your firm's data without leaving the platform. Instead of searching through records or pulling reports, users can type a question and get a contextual answer drawn from CRM data and external sources. Whether someone is preparing for a client meeting, catching up on a relationship, or researching a company, Chat makes that information accessible in seconds.

Because Chat is part of the Relationship Intelligence feature set, it works alongside tools like Smart Notes and Follow-up Assistant to give your team a more complete picture of each relationship. Advisors spend less time hunting for context and more time having conversations that matter.

This article explains how Chat becomes available in your Practifi organization, how to assign access to the right users, and how administrators can configure prompt templates and news sources to shape the experience for your firm.

Please note: Chat is part of the Practifi Intelligence add-on and is available to users with a Relationship Intelligence license. To request access, reach out to your Client Success Manager or Practifi contact. Enabling Relationship Intelligence requires signing additional data processing agreements due to our AI provider partnership.

How Chat Becomes Available

Chat is activated automatically when Relationship Intelligence is provisioned for your organization. If your organization has Relationship Intelligence enabled, the Chat interface will appear for users who are assigned licenses and have the Chat feature enabled.

Practifi organizations with Relationship Intelligence licenses and Practifi Intelligence features already enabled will have the Chat feature and the "Allow Chat to access conversations and notes" setting enabled by default. For instructions on modifying this setting, see the Enabling Additional Data Indexing section below.

Users with a Relationship Intelligence license and the Chat feature enabled will see the Chat section on Entity record pages and on the Chat page. For instructions on activating Chat for users, see the Assigning User Access section below.

Users without a Relationship Intelligence license will not see any Chat components.

Assigning User Access

Not every user in your organization needs access to Chat. You may want to focus Relationship Intelligence licenses on advisors and servicing team members who regularly research clients, prepare for meetings, or need quick access to relationship context. License assignments are managed on the Users tab of the Intelligence Features settings page, alongside other Relationship Intelligence tools.

Please note: You must assign a Relationship Intelligence license and toggle on the Chat feature at the user level to allow them to access the Chat interface.

To grant users access to Chat:

Click the App Launcher and select the Settings app.
From the Settings app, click the Navigation menu and select Intelligence Features.
On the Intelligence Features page, confirm you are viewing the Users tab.
For a user to access Chat, your organization must have at least one available Relationship Intelligence license. The License Overview section shows the number of used and available licenses in your Practifi organization.

Please note: If you do not have enough Practifi Intelligence licenses available, contact Practifi Support.
1. In the User Licenses table, click the License Type drop-down next to the user's name and make one of the following selections:
  - Relationship + Meeting Intelligence enables access to Smart Notes, Follow-up Assistant, Chat, and Notetaker.
  - Relationship Intelligence enables access to Smart Notes, Follow-up Assistant, and Chat, but not Notetaker.
2. Scroll to the right and turn on the Chat toggle for the desired user(s).
3. Repeat steps 5-6 for each user you want to grant access to.
4. At the bottom of the screen, click Save Changes.

Accessing Chat Settings

Practifi Administrators can access Chat settings on the Intelligence Features page in the Settings app. These settings are only available to users with administrator access.

To navigate to Chat settings:

Click the App Launcher and select the Settings app.
From the Settings app, click the Navigation menu and select Intelligence Features.
On the Intelligence Features page, select the Chat tab.
The Chat settings area contains two tabs: Prompt Templates and News Sources.

Adding the Chat App Page

The Chat page gives users a single place to view and search all their conversations across every relationship. Practifi Administrators must manually add this page to every app where they want it to appear in the Navigation menu.

To add the Chat page to a Practifi app:

Open Salesforce Setup by selecting the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner and selecting Setup from the drop-down menu.
From Setup, use the Quick Find box to search for and select App Manager.
On the Lightning Experience App Manager page, click the caret on the far right of the Advisor row, then select Edit. The Lightning App Builder opens.
In the Lightning App Builder, click the Navigation Items tab.
In the Available Items search box, search for Chat. Two results will appear. Select the one with the laptop icon, which is the Chat home page for conversations.
Click the right arrow button to add Chat to the Selected Items list.
Optionally, select Chat in the Selected Items list and use the up arrow to reorder it.

Please note: The Navigation menu displays only the first 16 items. Adding Chat may push another item out of the menu.
Click the Back arrow to exit the Lightning App Builder.
Repeat steps 3–8 for any other app where you want the Chat navigation item to appear.

Adding Chat to Custom Record Pages

The Chat section appears automatically on Entity record pages in standard Practifi page layouts. If your organization has customized any Entity record page layouts, a Practifi Administrator must manually add the Chat components to make them visible to users.

To add Chat to a custom Entity record page:

From an Entity record page, click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner and select Edit Page. The Lightning App Builder opens in a new tab.
In the Components panel on the left, search for Practifi - Navigation Section and drag and drop it into the position on the page where you want Chat to appear.
With the Navigation Section component selected, configure the following settings in the Properties panel on the right:
- Title: Chat
- Icon: fas fa-comment-dots
- Hide the title: Checked
Still in the Properties panel, click Add Filter under Set Component Visibility and configure the following filter:
- Permissions > Custom Permission > Practifi_Chat > Equal > True
This ensures the Chat navigation icon only appears for users who have been granted Chat access.
In the Components panel, search for Practifi - Chat Launcher and drag and drop it directly below the Navigation Section component you just added.
With the Chat Launcher component selected, apply the same component visibility filter as in step 4: Permissions > Custom Permission > Practifi_Chat > Equal > True.
Click Save and activate the page.
Repeat steps 1–7 for any other custom Entity record page layouts where you want Chat to appear.

Managing Prompt Templates

Prompt templates give your users a head start when conversing with Chat. These templates appear as clickable items below the text input on Entity record pages and on the Chat page when no active conversation is in progress. When a user selects a prompt, it is sent as the first message in a new conversation.

Well-designed templates remove the friction of formulating the right question from scratch. For example, the pre-built Call Prep template asks the AI assistant to summarize a client's recent activity, upcoming events, and any open tasks before a scheduled call. Templates for common use cases save time and ensure your team consistently draws on Chat's full capabilities.

Admins can manage templates on the Prompt Templates tab within Chat settings. The screen is divided into two panels: a template list on the left and a detail view on the right.

The left panel includes a search bar to find templates by name, a category filter drop-down to narrow the list to a specific category, and a New button to create a new template. When you select a template from the list, the detail panel on the right displays the template's name, category badge, and status badge, along with three cards: Prompt, Division Access, and History.

Pre-Built Templates

Practifi includes a set of pre-built templates that are active by default. These templates cover common advisor workflows and are ready to use without any additional configuration. The following templates appear as standalone buttons in the Chat interface:

Call Prep: Prepares an advisor for an upcoming client conversation by pulling together recent activity, outstanding items, and key relationship context.
Catch Me Up: Summarizes recent developments and interactions for an advisor who hasn't engaged with a relationship recently.
Market Context: Surfaces relevant market news and developments connected to the client's specific situation.

The following templates are grouped under the More category and are displayed when a user clicks the More button:

Client Overview: Provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship, including financial position, services, and key details.
Draft Follow-Up: Drafts a follow-up communication grounded in recent meeting notes and discussion points.
Open Items: Identifies outstanding tasks, commitments, and action items across the relationship.
Quarterly Review Prep: Assembles the context an advisor needs to prepare for a quarterly review meeting.

You can edit, clone, or deactivate any pre-built template, and create additional templates to suit your firm's workflows.

Cloning a Template

You can repurpose any pre-built Chat template by cloning it and making changes to it. To clone a template in Chat settings, select it and click the Clone button.

The cloned template is displayed at the top of the list with "(Copy)" appended to its name. The cloned template or will have a Draft status by default. Click the Edit button to give it a new name.

In the edit window, you can edit the Name and Prompt Text fields. Optionally, you can click the Category drop-down field and select a category for the template.

To activate the cloned template, click the Status drop-down field, select Active, and then click Save.

Creating a Template

To create a new Chat template:

On the Prompt Templates tab, click the New button.
On the Basic Details tab in the New Template window, complete the following fields:
- Name: The label that will appear in the Chat interface.
- Status: Active is selected by default. Select Draft if you're not ready to make the template visible to users.
- Category (optional): Select from the available categories to group the template. Templates assigned to a category appear under a dropdown rather than as standalone items.
- Prompt Text: The full question or instruction that is sent to the AI assistant when a user selects the template. This can be longer and more detailed than the template name.
To restrict the template to specific divisions, click the Division Access tab and configure access as needed. See the Division Visibility section below for more information.
Click Create.

Editing a Template

To edit a template, select it from the list and click the Edit button in the detail panel header.

An Edit Template window opens. Make your changes and click Save.

Template Categories

Categories group related templates under a single drop-down in the Chat interface, which keeps the area organized when you have a large number of templates. Templates without a category assignment appear as standalone items. In the example below, two templates are grouped under the Client Communication category.

The More category is available as a catch-all option for templates you want grouped rather than displayed separately, without assigning them to a more specific category.

Categories are a fixed set of options available in the Category drop-down when creating or editing a template. They are not managed separately within Chat settings.

Division Visibility

By default, a new template is visible to all users across your organization. If your firm serves distinct business units or client segments through separate divisions, you can restrict a template so that only users in specific divisions can see it.

To manage division access, use the Division Access tab when creating or editing a template, or click the Edit button on the Division Access area of the detail panel. A template is visible to any user who belongs to at least one of the assigned divisions.

Enabling Additional Data Indexing

By default, Chat can answer questions using live structured CRM data such as services, deals, household details, and record fields. Administrators can extend Chat's reach to include historical unstructured data by enabling the "Allow Chat to access conversations and notes" setting on the Sources tab within Chat settings. When active, this setting indexes Smart Notes, traditional notes, Feed posts, and email messages, giving the assistant access to rich historical context when answering questions about a client. New records are automatically indexed in real time after the initial setup.

Please note: Practifi organizations with Relationship Intelligence licenses and Practifi Intelligence features already enabled will have the "Allow Chat to access conversations and notes" setting enabled by default.

To enable data indexing:

Navigate to Chat settings and select the Sources tab.
In the "Allow Chat to access conversations and notes" section, click Okay.
The import process begins, and a progress indicator appears.

Chat remains fully usable during the initial migration. Advisors can continue to ask questions using live, structured data throughout the process. Only historical unstructured data will be unavailable until migration completes, which may take some time for organizations with large volumes of data.

When the migration is complete, a success message appears on the Users tab of the Intelligence Features page.

Once activated, the setting label updates to Access conversations and notes, and two additional controls become available:

Resync: Manually triggers a full data re-send. Use this if information appears to be missing, for example, after a bulk data import.
Deactivate: Turns off the feature, removes all indexed data from the external service, and deletes the scheduled backup jobs associated with data indexing. Re-enabling requires the full migration to run again, and the scheduled jobs will be recreated automatically.

Please note: Deactivating this setting permanently removes all indexed data. Re-enabling the setting requires the full historical data migration to run again.

Configuring External Sources

Chat can draw on a wide range of external news and reference sources, as well as your organization's own CRM data, when answering questions. The External Sources area on the Sources tab lets you control exactly which sources the assistant can access so that you can align Chat's knowledge base with your firm's preferences and compliance posture.

For example, if your firm focuses on US-based wealth management clients, you might choose to enable targeted financial news sources while disabling regional news categories that are not relevant to your practice. The more precisely you configure the source list, the more focused and relevant Chat's responses will be.

Navigating the Source Tree

Sources are organized in a hierarchical tree with categories and individual sources. The top-level categories are:

Business & Financial News: Financial news publications and wire services.
General News: Major news outlets and wire services.
Industry News: Wealth management and financial services trade publications.
Regional News: News sources organized by geographic region.

Click the caret to the left of a category or subcategory to expand it and reveal the individual sources within it.

Enabling and Disabling Sources

Each source has a checkbox. Check a source to enable it; uncheck it to disable it. When a source is disabled, Chat will not draw on content from that source when generating responses.

You can also check or uncheck a category checkbox to enable or disable all sources within that group at once.

At the top of the tree is a Select All checkbox that enables or disables every source simultaneously. A counter next to the header shows how many sources are currently enabled out of the total available.

All sources are enabled by default. News source configuration applies across your organization.

Saving Changes

When you make changes to source selections, a Save Changes button appears at the bottom of the External Sources area. Your changes are not applied until you click Save Changes. If you navigate away without saving, your changes will be lost.

CRM Data Access

Chat accesses CRM data according to the requesting user's permissions. Structured data, such as record fields and related records, respects field-level security, meaning Chat only sees the fields a given user has access to. Unstructured data indexed for search, such as long text fields and notes, is filtered by record-level access based on division, team, and user, but is not subject to field-level security.

When an entity is deleted from Practifi, all conversations associated with that entity are automatically removed.

Troubleshooting

Chat Not Appearing for a User

If a user cannot see the Chat navigation icon on record pages or the Chat page, work through the following checks:

On the Users tab of the Intelligence Features page, confirm the user has a valid license, either Relationship Intelligence or Relationship + Meeting Intelligence.
Verify the user has the Chat feature toggled on. See Assigning User Access for instructions.
Confirm the Chat navigation item has been added to the user's app. See Adding the Chat App Page for instructions.

Additional Data Indexing Not Returning CRM Data

If Chat is not returning results from indexed CRM data, work through the following checks:

Verify that Enable AI Chat Data Indexing is checked in Practifi Settings.
Check whether the initial data migration has completed. Progress is visible on the Sources tab within Chat settings.
Ensure the entity being queried has associated records that fall within the supported objects and fields for indexing.
If the issue persists, contact Practifi Support and request a review of RAGService debug logs.

Scheduled Jobs Not Running

If data indexing appears stalled or out of sync, the scheduled backup jobs may have been aborted. To investigate:

Open Salesforce Setup and use the Quick Find box to search for and select Scheduled Jobs.
Verify that the following Chat-related jobs exist and show a Scheduled status:
- Practifi - RAG Sync - Non-CDC Objects
- Practifi - RAG Sync Reconciliation
If jobs are missing or show a failed status, use the Quick Find box to search for and select Apex Jobs and check for failed batch executions.
If jobs need to be rescheduled, contact Practifi Support for assistance.