The AI assistants policy, choice by choice

The policy is on Settings, Integrations, AI assistants, Policy. Saving it needs administrator mode. Each save makes a new version, and the page shows the version number.

Whatever the policy says, an assistant never sees more than the person who connected it can see, and some things are never available at all. See What an assistant never does.

Switched on

Let people connect AI assistants. When this is off, no assistant can reach EstatesBase and every connection ends. You can always switch it off. You can only switch it on once the current data notice is accepted.

Who may connect

Lowest role that may connect. Choose Read Only and above, Caretaker and above, Site Manager and above or Administrator only. People with this role or a higher one may connect an assistant to their own account. The shipped choice is Caretaker and above. Administrators can always connect.

Allow Board members. Off unless you tick it. When ticked, trustees may connect an assistant. It can then only read the Board area and who they are, as trustees see in EstatesBase.

Approve each new connection. When ticked, a new connection waits until an administrator approves it on the Connections tab. A connection nobody approves lapses after 7 days. The length of an approved connection counts from the day it is approved. Ticking this later does not stop connections that already work.

Longest a connection may last, in days. From 1 to 365. The shipped choice is 90. When a connection reaches its end, the person connects again, so their access is looked at afresh. If you shorten this, it applies at once to existing connections, counted from when each was approved or made.

Also allowed below that role

Name Groups or People who may connect even though their role is below the lowest role. This adds to the role rule. For example, "Site Manager and above, plus the caretakers' group".

How people are named to an assistant

When an assistant reads a record that names a colleague, it sees them this way:

• First names only (the shipped choice)
• Full names
• Initials only
• Roles only, never names

Email addresses and phone numbers are never shown, whatever you choose.

What an assistant may do

Reading is always allowed. For each kind of change, choose:

• Confirmed by the person in the chat. The assistant shows a preview of the change, and it happens only when the person agrees in the chat.
• Proposed, then approved in EstatesBase. The change waits until someone with the right to approve it does so in EstatesBase.
• Not allowed. Assistants cannot make this kind of change.

The four kinds are:

Organisation settings and sensitive actions can only ever be proposed, or not allowed. They can never be confirmed in the chat.

Why you might choose proposals for everything. When a person confirms a change in the chat, EstatesBase cannot prove it was the person who agreed rather than the assistant. A proposal is approved by a person inside EstatesBase. If that matters for a kind of change, set it to proposed.

Areas an assistant may use

Untick an area to keep assistants out of it for everyone. Who you are and the sites you can see is always on. The areas are:

• Compliance
• Requests and jobs
• Maintenance and permits
• Contractors
• Assets and buildings
• Health and safety
• Governance, projects and the annual return
• The Board
• People
• Sustainability and energy
• Departments
• Insight and assurance
• Organisation settings

When a person connects, they can narrow this further for their own connection, never widen it.

Which assistants people may connect

This is on the Assistants tab, not the Policy tab. Each assistant EstatesBase knows by name is listed with Allowed or Not allowed, and a button to change it. Another assistant covers any assistant EstatesBase does not recognise by name.

Choosing Do not allow ends every connection through that assistant at once.

A caution about assistants on a person's own computer. Claude Code, GitHub Copilot in VS Code and Gemini CLI run on the person's own computer. Another program on that computer can imitate them. So allowing or denying one of those is a convenience, not a control. The web assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot Studio) are recognised more firmly, because only they receive the sign-in on their own web address.

Two people who are always limited

• A person whose access covers departments only can use only Who you are and the sites you can see and Departments.
• A trustee, when allowed, can use only those core tools and The Board, and only to read.