AI app guides
Add AI summaries to a business app with a reviewable source
Keep the underlying records available and evaluate omissions, unsupported statements and useful compression separately.
Zocri · 2 min read · Sources checked
Choose the reader's task
NIST's Generative AI profile is voluntary guidance for considering trustworthiness across the design, use and evaluation of AI systems. Use that broad perspective when deciding what a summary should help someone do. A support supervisor may need unresolved issues and next actions, while a project owner may need decisions since the last review. Those are different summaries even when they use the same records.
Define the source set and time window. Tell the feature whether to summarize one ticket, a project or a week's updates. Show that scope near the output so a reader does not mistake a partial view for the whole history. Keep the original records accessible through appropriate permissions.
Specify what must survive compression
Identify the information that cannot be lost: the customer's unresolved question, a promised date, an explicit decision or the current owner. Ask for a format that preserves these facts without copying every message. A shorter paragraph is useful only if it retains what the reader needs to act.
Separate stated facts from proposed next steps. If the summary suggests contacting a customer, label that as a recommendation unless the source already records the decision. Do not let a plausible suggestion appear as something a colleague promised or completed when the underlying records say otherwise.
Evaluate more than fluent writing
Prepare a small set of invented or appropriately sanitized examples with known expected points. Include a long thread, a corrected earlier statement, conflicting updates and a record with no clear resolution. Review unsupported claims, missing important facts and whether the result answers the intended reader's question.
Check source references individually where the feature provides them. A linked record may be relevant without supporting the exact statement beside it. Ask a reviewer to locate the evidence for each consequential claim and mark uncertainty when the record itself does not settle the issue.
Keep action under a clear control
Begin with summaries that assist reading rather than automatically changing business records. If a later version proposes actions, add a separate review and authorization step. The owner should be able to correct the summary without accidentally approving a message, reassignment or other external effect.
Track useful failures during a pilot and add them to the evaluation set. Preserve the version and source window so comparisons remain meaningful after changes. A valuable summary feature helps people reach the right records and understand them faster, while leaving its claims open to inspection and correction.