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Getting Started Tutorial RAG

Getting Started with Buildgrid: Connect Your Knowledge with AI

by Buildgrid Team

Getting started with Buildgrid is straightforward. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the three core steps — from connecting your data to launching an AI assistant your team can use every day.

What is Buildgrid?

Buildgrid is an Operative AI Platform that connects your internal knowledge sources — documents, databases, wikis, and websites — with powerful generative AI models. Instead of fine-tuning large language models, Buildgrid uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to deliver accurate, contextual responses grounded in your actual data.

This means:

  • No hallucinated answers — responses are traced back to source documents
  • No expensive model training — plug in your data and go
  • Full control over what your AI knows and who can access it

Step 1: Transform Your Data to Knowledge

Start by connecting your data sources in the Buildgrid dashboard. The platform supports:

  • Documents — PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and plain text files
  • Websites — Provide URLs and Buildgrid extracts page content automatically
  • Databases — Connect structured data sources via API
  • File systems — Mount cloud storage from Google Drive, SharePoint, and more

Once connected, your data is processed into vector embeddings — numerical representations that capture the semantic meaning of your content. These embeddings are stored in a vector database optimized for fast similarity search.

Step 2: Build AI Capabilities

With your knowledge base in place, configure your AI model:

Brand and Personality

Customize how your AI assistant looks and communicates. Set the tone (professional, casual, technical), add your brand colors, and define the greeting message.

Model Selection

Buildgrid supports multiple LLM providers. Choose OpenAI’s GPT models, or select local model options for organizations with strict data residency requirements.

Access Control

Define who can access what. Role-based permissions ensure sensitive datasets are only available to authorized users. This is especially important for enterprise deployments where different teams need different levels of access.

Step 3: Launch Across Platforms

Deploy your AI assistant through the channels your team already uses:

  • Web chat — Embed on your website or share a private URL
  • Slack — Install the Buildgrid plugin in your workspace
  • Microsoft Teams — Native integration for enterprise environments
  • WhatsApp — Reach users on mobile

Each client connects to the same underlying model and knowledge base, ensuring consistent answers regardless of the channel.

What’s Next?

Once your assistant is live, Buildgrid provides analytics dashboards showing usage patterns, popular questions, and response quality metrics. Use these insights to continuously improve your knowledge base and fine-tune the AI’s behavior.

Ready to get started? Sign up at app.buildgrid.ai and have your first AI assistant running in under an hour.

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