Asking questions¶
Once you're linked and your AI key is set, this is the whole job: ask, read, ask again. This page is about asking well and knowing what you'll get back.
How to ask¶
- Direct message the app for a private answer only you see.
- @-mention the app in a channel (
@CorpusIQ ...) when the answer belongs to the whole channel.
Ask the way you'd ask a colleague who has all the numbers in front of them. Plain English, no special syntax:
How did revenue compare to last month?
You don't need to name the tool. CorpusIQ works out that "revenue" means your accounting or payments data and goes there. If a question could mean two things, it's fine to say which — "revenue from Stripe" or "orders in Shopify" — but you rarely need to.
Follow-ups work¶
Answers live in a thread, and you can keep going in it. Ask a broad question, then narrow:
How did sales do last week?
Just the online store.
Now break that down by product.
Each reply builds on the last, so you don't have to restate the whole question every time.
What the answers look like¶
CorpusIQ replies with the numbers laid out, not buried in a paragraph. Key figures come back as tiles in Slack and as cards in Teams — a revenue figure, a change versus the prior period, a count of orders — so you can read the result at a glance. Longer explanations come as short text above or beside the tiles.
When a question spans several tools, the answer pulls them together. When it needs a tool you haven't connected, the reply says so and gives you a way to connect it rather than guessing.
Two things CorpusIQ won't do: invent a number it can't source, or quietly leave out a tool it couldn't reach. If data is missing, it tells you.
Questions worth trying¶
A starter set across the common areas. Use the ones that match what you've connected.
Money and finance¶
How much revenue did we bring in last month, and how does that compare to the month before?
What are our biggest outstanding invoices right now?
What did we spend with our top five vendors this quarter?
Ads and marketing¶
Which ad campaigns had the best return last week?
Where are we spending the most and getting the least back?
How did our email campaigns perform this month — opens, clicks, revenue?
Store and orders¶
How many orders are waiting to ship?
What are my best-selling products in the last 30 days?
Which products are running low on stock?
Customers and pipeline¶
Which deals are closing this month?
Who are my highest-value customers this year?
How many new leads did we get last week, and where did they come from?
Web and search¶
How much traffic did the site get last week, and where did it come from?
Which pages get the most visits but the fewest sign-ups?
Across everything¶
Give me a quick read on how the business is doing this month.
What changed the most week over week?
That last kind — the broad "how are we doing" question — is where the chat app earns its place. One question in a channel, and everyone sees the same answer, drawn live from the tools behind it.
If an answer looks off¶
CorpusIQ shows where a number came from. If something looks wrong, the usual cause is a tool that isn't connected or a question that could be read two ways. Ask it to be specific — name the tool or the date range — and see troubleshooting.md if it persists.