# Can an AI assistant answer technical questions about your equipment? Yes, as long as it only answers from the documents you give it and says where each answer comes from. An assistant built on datasheets, manuals and application notes handles questions on volumes, materials, connections or software well. Process, scale-up, GMP compliance and pricing questions should go to an application specialist. And since 2 August 2026 it has to tell people it is an AI. [Web version](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/guides/ai-assistant-technical-documentation-equipment/) By David Monje, crida studio · Published 2026-09-17 · Updated 2026-09-17 ## Questions whose answer is already written down An AI assistant works well when the answer already exists in a document. The working volume of a 50 litre bioreactor, which materials touch the product, which probes it carries, what connections the single-use bag has or how to change the filter on a TFF system. Today your sales reps and service engineers answer these, often by pasting the same email again. It also helps with software and maintenance questions, provided there is a manual. How to export a batch, which user roles the control software has or how often a probe needs calibrating according to the manufacturer. If the assistant cites the page and version of the manual, the buyer does not wait a day and the engineer does not repeat the same work. ## Which documents to give it and which to keep out The assistant is only as good as what it reads. Before connecting anything, list the current documents with version and date, and remove the ones that no longer apply. An old manual that still describes a discontinued controller does real harm, because the assistant will quote it with the same confidence as the new one. Keep customer URS documents, FAT and SAT reports, prices, quotes and anything under NDA out of it. If the assistant is public, anything it reads can end up in an answer. If it is an internal tool for your sales team, it can read more, but with permissions per person. - Published datasheets and brochures, in their current version. - User and maintenance manuals that customers already receive with the equipment. - Application notes and service FAQs reviewed by engineering. - The list of documents supplied for IQ, OQ and PQ qualification, without any customer's results. ### Can it answer in English or German if the manuals are in Spanish? Current models can read a document in one language and answer in another, which helps if you sell into Germany or the Nordics. But technical terms have to match your official documentation in that language. If you have a translated manual, give it that version and have an engineer who speaks the language review a sample of answers. ## When the assistant should hand over to a specialist The rule is simple. If the answer depends on the customer's process, the assistant should not give it. Cell line, media or moving from the lab to a pilot plant are questions for an application specialist, who will ask for data first. The same goes for anything that sounds like a commercial or compliance promise. The handover has to be easy. The assistant summarises the question, asks for name, company and email, and sends it to the right person with the full conversation. The specialist does not start from scratch and the buyer does not explain the same thing three times. - Process and scale-up questions, such as whether what works at 2 litres will work at 200. - Compliance claims, such as whether the system is GMP or 21 CFR Part 11 compliant, which also depends on how the customer validates and uses it. - Prices, lead times and custom configurations. - Complaints, incidents and deviations on installed equipment. ## Every answer should show where it comes from In this industry a wrong figure can end up inside a URS. So the assistant must be able to say it does not know. Anthropic's guide to reducing hallucinations recommends letting the model admit it lacks information, having it pull word-for-word quotes from long documents before answering and asking it to back each claim with a quote and a source. In practice every answer links to the document and page it comes from. If nothing relevant turns up, it says so and offers to put the buyer in touch with a person. Technical buyers can check the figure themselves, and your team can trace each mistake back to the document that needs fixing. ### Can it replace an application specialist? No. It takes the repetitive questions off their desk and passes on the real cases with a summary of the conversation, which is already a lot. Process, scale-up and compliance decisions depend on customer data the assistant does not have and should not have in a public tool. The specialist still answers and signs off. ## Telling users it is an AI and what happens to their data Article 50 of the EU AI Act has applied since 2 August 2026. Paragraph 1 says systems meant to interact directly with people must be designed so that people know they are talking to an AI, unless that is obvious. Paragraph 5 adds that the notice must come at the latest at the first interaction, in a clear and accessible way. When the assistant asks for contact details to pass the case on, the GDPR comes in too. Article 13(1) says that at the moment data is collected you must tell people who the controller is, what the data will be used for and the other points it lists. A short line in the chat with a link to the privacy policy covers it. ### Should it go on the website or stay internal? It depends on the problem you want to solve. If sales and service lose hours digging through manuals, start with an internal tool. If buyers cannot find technical data on your website, a public assistant makes sense. Starting internally and going public once the answers survive engineering review keeps the risk down. ## How to test it before it goes on your website Start with real questions. Collect thirty or forty questions from sales and service emails, ask an application specialist to write the right answer and compare it with the assistant's. When it gets something wrong, the cause is often a missing document or an outdated one that slipped in. We usually set it up first as an internal tool for the sales and service team. Once the answers hold up under engineering review, it moves to the website. Every time a new manual comes out or a product is discontinued, the documents need updating and the test questions need running again. ## References - [Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the AI Act, text in the Spanish Official Gazette](https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=DOUE-L-2024-81079) - [European Commission, FAQ on the transparency obligations of Article 50 of the AI Act](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/faqs/transparency-obligations-under-article-50-ai-act) - [Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the GDPR, text in the Spanish Official Gazette](https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=DOUE-L-2016-80807) - [Anthropic, reduce hallucinations (documentation)](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/test-and-evaluate/strengthen-guardrails/reduce-hallucinations) ## The crida perspective We are a marketing, brand and technology studio based in Girona. We bring identity, content and development together so a digital experience makes sense from beginning to end. crida studio, Caldes de Malavella (Girona, Spain). David Monje, founder and director. ## Want an assistant that answers from your manuals? Tell us what equipment you make, what documentation you have and who answers technical questions today. We will look at what an assistant could handle and where a person should step in. 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