How do I open and use Ask Arbor?

Ask Arbor is your AI-assistant for Arbor. Anyone with permission can consult Ask Arbor with a single click from any page in the MIS. This guide takes you through how to open Ask Arbor so you can start harnessing the power of the AI in Arbor.

Opening Ask Arbor

To open the main Ask Arbor assistant, simply click on the 'Ask Arbor' logo in the top right corner of any page of your Arbor MIS to open the Ask Arbor slide-over. 

To open a context-specific assistant, like the Pastoral Group Assistant, click the Ask Arbor button in the right-hand menu of the relevant Dashboard page.

Can’t see Ask Arbor? 

You may need your Arbor AI administrator to give you permission to access Ask Arbor. While any staff member can access Ask Arbor in principle, you do need to be granted permission to do so. Admins can find more on managing Ask Arbor and Arbor AI permissions here.

Using Ask Arbor

To use Ask Arbor, you simply converse with it in natural language, just like you would with a colleague. You can type your messages (or 'prompts') in the text box, click the microphone icon to speak (rather than type) your request, or use one of the starter prompt buttons to use a template message.

Ask Arbor will reply with what it has found or has actioned for you. Or, if anything needs to be clarified before Ask Arbor can give a confident response, Ask Arbor will ask you a follow-up question. You can continue the conversation by sending another text or voice message until you reach the limit of 30 messages per conversation.

Keyboard-free interaction

Pro Tip: Use the dictation feature! It's faster than typing and makes it easier to be highly specific with your requests. Just click the microphone in the text box to get started.

Using the Prompt menu

When you open Ask Arbor you immediately see action-based categories to help focus the AI on exactly what you want to achieve without you having to craft the perfect prompt. 

Simply click one of the tiles to get started and select your prompt. Ask Arbor will go back and forth with you until you have the outcome you need!

The types of actions you can select are:

• Find: Use this to quickly look up a specific student, staff member, or room.
• Today: Use this to get an immediate snapshot of what is happening right now.
• Draft: Use this when you need the AI to write something for you, such as an email to parents.
• Trends: Use this to look for patterns over time across larger groups.
• Act: Use this to have the AI log absences and interventions or book rooms
• Report: Use this to crunch whole-school statutory data.

How can I provide feedback?

Ask Arbor can occasionally be wrong. It is therefore crucial to leave feedback on things that do not look right to help Ask Arbor improve.

• Use the Nailed it or Missed the mark icons: in the chatbot to rate the quality of responses as good or bad respectively.