| 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
Your firm's Practifi organization stores years of client history, but retrieving that information when you need it can mean manually searching through multiple records. With Chat, you can ask a question about a client in conversational language and get an answer that draws on everything Practifi knows about that relationship, brought together into a response you can act on immediately.
Chat is a part of Relationship Intelligence, which means it works alongside Smart Notes and Follow-up Assistant to give you a more complete picture of each client. Rather than looking up a single data point, you can ask Chat to prepare you for an upcoming meeting, draft a client communication grounded in your firm's Practifi data, or connect the threads across a relationship's financial situation, service history, and recent interactions. The assistant remembers what you've discussed within a conversation, so you can start broad, narrow in, and ask follow-up questions without re-explaining the context each time.
This article explains where to find Chat, how to start and manage conversations, and how to get the most useful responses from the assistant.
| Please note: Chat is part of the Practifi Intelligence add-on and requires a Relationship Intelligence license. If you don’t see Chat in your Practifi organization, reach out to your Practifi Administrator. |
- Where to Find Chat
- Starting a Conversation
- Having a Conversation
- Managing Conversations
- What the Assistant Can Access
- Getting the Best Results
- Things to Know
Where to Find Chat
On Entity Records
Chat appears as its own section on Household, Organization, and Individual record pages. Navigate to it by clicking the Chat navigation icon in the record side panel. The Chat section displays a text input, any prompt templates your administrator has configured, and your recent and pinned conversations for that record.
On the Chat Page
Select Chat from the Navigation menu to see all your conversations across every relationship in one place. The Chat page shows a My Conversations header with a count of your conversations, a search bar, and a sidebar listing your pinned and recent conversations. Each conversation card displays the entity name so you can see at a glance which client it relates to.
Starting a Conversation
From a Record Page
When you open Chat on a record page, you'll see a text input along with any prompt templates your administrator has set up. You can start a conversation in two ways:
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Type your question in the chat input and click the paper plane icon or press the <ENTER> key. The assistant opens the conversation in a new tab and begins responding.
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Select one of the template options below the text input to start a new conversation with a pre-written question.
Because the assistant already knows which record you're looking at, you don't need to specify it in your question.
From the Chat Page
There are two ways to start a conversation from the Chat page. You can type your message directly in the composer and use the entity lookup field beside the input to specify which household, organization, or individual you want to ask about; both the message and the entity are required to send.
Alternatively, click the New button at the top of the page to open an entity selection screen, search for the record you want, and select it to populate the Entity field and begin a new conversation.
Each conversation is assigned a title automatically after the assistant's first response.
Having a Conversation
Once a conversation is underway, you can send follow-up messages to continue the discussion. The assistant remembers everything discussed earlier in the conversation and can build on previous answers, so there's no need to re-establish context as you go. While the assistant is generating a response, a loading indicator appears. Once the full response is ready, it displays in the conversation thread.
Response Content
Responses can include several elements depending on the nature of your question. Output text may include formatting such as headings, lists, tables, bold text, and clickable links. Links to Practifi records open within Practifi; external links open in a new tab.
Where the assistant draws on specific sources, citations appear as numbered superscripts within the response text. A full list of sources appears below the response, with each citation including the source name and a link to the original record or document. Click the Sources heading to expand the list.
Below each response, you'll find a Copy icon to copy the output to your clipboard and a Retry icon to regenerate the response if needed.
For entities that don't have much information to draw upon, you might see a response that further data is needed for more detailed summaries.
Context Window
A context usage indicator in the input area shows approximately how much of the conversation's memory has been used.
As conversations grow longer, the assistant may summarize earlier messages to make room for new ones. When this happens, a notice appears in the conversation thread. Your earlier messages remain visible when you scroll up, but the assistant may not recall their details precisely.
If you're moving to a new topic, starting a fresh conversation is a good habit; it keeps context clean and responses more focused.
Managing Conversations
Finding Conversations
On a record page, you'll see your pinned conversations and your three most recent conversations for that entity. Click the View All button in the upper right-hand corner of the Chat section to open a full searchable list in a new tab.
On the Chat page, all your conversations appear in the sidebar grouped into Pinned and Recent, and the search bar filters by title, content, and entity name.
Pinning
You can pin a conversation to keep it easily accessible. Pinned conversations appear in a separate group above your recent conversations on both the record page and the Chat page.
There are three ways to pin or unpin a conversation:
- Click the pin icon in the conversation header when viewing a conversation.
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In the Chat section of an Entity record, hover over a conversation, click the caret, and select Pin.
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On the Chat page, hover over a conversation, click the caret, and select Pin.
Renaming
The assistant generates a title automatically based on your first message, but you can change it at any time. Click the Edit button in the header. Enter a new name in the title field, then press the<ENTER> key.
Exporting
To save a copy of a conversation, click the caret in the conversation header and select Export. This downloads a plain text file containing all messages from both you and the assistant.
Deleting
To delete a conversation, click the Delete button in the conversation header. You'll be asked to confirm the action. Deleting a conversation removes it and all its messages permanently.
What the Assistant Can Access
Whether it's preparing for a complex annual review, responding to a client inquiry accurately, or identifying patterns across a long-standing relationship, Chat turns your firm's Practifi data into a resource your whole team can engage with in conversation. Your team spends less time navigating and assembling information and more time acting on it.
When you ask a question, the assistant draws on several sources to build its response. It can access structured CRM data about the entity in question, including record fields and related information. Optionally, your firm's administrator can also give the assistant access to unstructured data from Smart Notes, traditional notes, Feed posts, and email messages.
The data available to the assistant is filtered by your permissions, meaning it can only see fields and records that you can access in your Practifi organization.
External sources such as financial and industry news may also be available, depending on how your Practifi Administrator has configured them. When your question spans multiple areas, the assistant synthesizes information from all available sources into a single response.
Getting the Best Results
The assistant is designed to match the depth of its response to the complexity of your question. A simple factual question gets a concise answer; a broader question gets a thorough synthesis across everything the assistant knows about the relationship. A few practices will help you consistently get more useful responses.
Ask the way you would ask a colleague. You don't need special syntax or keywords. "Summarize the last three interactions with this household" works just as well as "Give me a quick overview of what's been happening with the Feldmans recently." The assistant understands natural language and interprets your intent.
Be specific about what you need the information for. Asking "What should I know before my annual review with this client?" gives the assistant the context to prioritize relevant details, surface recent activity, and flag things worth discussing. Asking "Tell me about this client" gives it less to work with, and the response will be more general.
Ask follow-up questions. The assistant remembers everything discussed in the current conversation. If a response mentions something you want to explore further, just ask. "Tell me more about that portfolio change" or "What was the context for that meeting?" are natural follow-ups that build on what came before.
Use Chat for synthesis, not just retrieval. The assistant's strongest capability is connecting information across multiple sources. Rather than asking for a single data point you could look up yourself, ask questions that require piecing things together: "Are there any open action items from recent meetings I should follow up on?" or "How has this client's situation changed since their last annual review?"
Start a new conversation when you change topics. Each conversation is tied to a single household, organization, or individual. If you need to ask about a different relationship, start a new conversation from that record page or use the Chat page.
Things to Know
- Each conversation belongs to a single Household, Organization, or Individual record. To ask about a different relationship, start a new conversation related to that entity.
- Conversations save automatically. There is no manual save step.
- You cannot edit or delete individual messages after sending them.
- The assistant generates responses based on available data. Always verify important details, particularly for compliance-sensitive decisions.
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