Ask ALEX: Document Retrieval Approach

Context for how Ask ALEX references PDFs to answer employee questions

THINGS TO KNOW

• Ask ALEX references text-based information, saved in PDFs, to answer employee questions

• PDFs can be any length (yes, even that 80 page medical SPD works)

• You can include as many different PDF files as you would like

• Try to organize your PDFs so that information on a benefit is not split across pages. Ask ALEX will look at each page of a doc individually. 

  • When Ask ALEX uses a benefit document to answer an employee question, it will provide a link to that PDF that opens in a new tab on the referenced page #. (This works on most browsers, but sometimes the PDF will just open on page 1)

  • The file name of the PDF will be visible to employees when it’s linked, so use a standard, sensible naming convention for your documents.
    

  Ask ALEX will not be able to ask eligibility questions. 

• Your documents will need to clearly indicate what benefits are available to which employee groups. 

• You should include what group a plan is for in the document name, title, and description to help Ask ALEX give complete answers. But know that employees may get answers that include details of plans they are not eligible for.

• Ask ALEX may provide details for multiple plans or employee groups when answering a question like “What is my deductible?” or “What is my premium for the PPO plan?”

  Any information you include in Ask ALEX’s benefit documents can be used to answer any employee’s questions. This means:

  • Don’t include secret benefits for executives unless it's ok for any potential employee using Ask ALEX to see those.

  • If benefits differ across employee groups / enrolled medical plans, make sure that context is provided somewhere in the document, file name, or FAQ.

  • Labeling the file names of your PDFs can help with employees understanding which documents pertain to which benefits.

  • If there are plans that some employees are not eligible for, those plan document names and descriptions should clearly indicate who the plan is for. For example: Placeholder-Medical-FullTimeHDHP3000-2026.pdf

  • Keep in mind that if your entire benefit lineup differs drastically across many different employee groups, this tool might not be a great fit for your population.

  Ask ALEX’s AI does not “remember” information in the PDFs you provide.

  • It scans and builds answers for each question and is not trained by your information. 

  • When you switch out docs or update information, old information that is no longer included will not be referenced or shared in answers.
    

  Each collection of PDFs pertains to a specific plan year, you can only upload one set of PDFs per plan year configuration.