Our AI Assistant is now available to all GovernorHub users; this article shows you how to use its file picker feature.

You’ll find the AI Assistant (blue button) at the top of every page. If you haven't yet used it, you might like to read our AI Assistant article before learning about this particular part of it.

What does the file picker do?

The AI Assistant’s file picker has been designed to add vital context and relevance to your work. Alone, our assistant can answer your governance questions with solid advice and guidance based on best practice and legislation - with the file picker it can now understand your individual situation too.

The file picker allows you to choose a file (a word doc, a spreadsheet, a pdf etc.) from your board's Documents area on GovernorHub to help you with your task.

How do I choose a file to use?

From within the AI Assistant ...

Just click on the +Choose file button - you can do this before or after typing in your question / task.

Scenario: You are in the AI assistant looking for good questions to ask in your next meeting when you realise if it knew what was in your school development plan it would be able to give you much more relevant answers.

Clicking +Choose File will open a window in which you can navigate to, and select a file from, your board's documents.

What if I am on more than one board?

If you are on multiple boards the file picker will ask you which board you want to use first. You can type in the group in question OR scroll down to select the right one.

From within your Documents area

Scenario: You've come to your meeting folder to prep for your meeting and you spot a document that is always hard to digest so you share it with the AI Assistant and ask it to summarise it and help you with questions that show support and challenge.

Just click on the three dots next to any file and select 'Ask AI Assistant'. This will take you to the AI assistant with a link to the document pre-loaded.

What next?

Once you've chosen your document you can set the assistant going as normal!

Can I use more than one document at once?

Yes! Once you've chosen one, you can add another as you need. See the example below.

This tool is intended to save you time and effort but we are mindful not to encourage poor practice. Being asked to summarise 20 documents at once is harder than one or two at a time. We’ve capped the number of files you can use at once to 5 to support focused use of the tool - this will ensure your responses are as useful and accurate as they can be.

You chat history will highlight any prompts you have used with added files (see picture below of the chat history)

I already use Chat GPT's file upload - why change?

Upload functions are commonplace in AI products now. You can use them to compare and summarise information, ask questions of particular documents and rewrite notes in particular ways - pretty impressive!

GovernorHub’s file picker is, however, deliberately designed for governance support. If you want Chat GPT to turn your recipe from American measures to British - great! But for governance tasks - security and confidentiality are much more important.

Some AI products (especially the free ones) are trained on the content you put into it. For this reason we strongly recommend that you don't use your school's information in these products (would you really want any AI bot using your confidential documentation to answer another board's questions?). Our file picker only reads your documents to do the job rather than using them to train it to do other people’s tasks - your documents aren't stored anywhere else.

Scenario: using Chatbots that use your data to train its understanding
Your colleague used a free AI product to help them summarise a complaint against your headteacher which was subsequently quashed. 6 months later, a governor from another school has had a complaint against their head and asks their AI product 'my headteacher has been accused of x - does this sort of thing happen often' and the chatbot replies naming your Headteacher as someone that had done this.

Some examples of awesome uses for this feature!

This upgrade transforms the AI Assistant's capabilities from offering general governance advice to delivering board-specific guidance that is relevant to you and your role.

Here are just some of the ways it could help you do let us know if you find others too!

This is my latest Headteacher’s report, what should I be asking in my next meeting that shows challenge and support?
Here are the last two versions of our SIP, highlight what progress has been made between the two?
Pull the action points to follow up on from my last two meeting minutes.
Formalise these notes for my visit report and highlight any important actions.
Review this policy against the statutory guidance and suggest questions to ask and areas to monitor in school to check its working well.
Summarise this financial data and highlight any risks
Read this Risk Register and give me areas to discuss at my next meeting with some questions to ask to show robust challenge

AI Assistant: File Picker