Everyone asks the same colleague

Make your own documents searchable, with the source for every answer

Many businesses have a colleague like that. She knows how a return works, which client has which arrangement and where the manual is. If that colleague is ill or away, everyone goes searching.

According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), in 2025 some 2.4 million people aged 55 and over had paid work. When a colleague like that retires, whatever was never written down disappears.

Do you recognise any of these situations?

• New employees keep asking the same questions of the same person.
• Procedures and price agreements are scattered across folders, mailboxes and heads.
• There are three versions of one work instruction, and nobody knows which one is right.
• Your go-to person no longer gets round to their own work.

How do you secure knowledge in your business?

Start with the questions, not with software:

1. Write down the questions. Have your go-to person keep track for a few weeks of which questions come in.
2. Record the answers. Briefly and in one place, such as a checklist or work instruction.
3. Give every document an owner who keeps it up to date and removes old versions.
4. Make it searchable. Only now does AI come into the picture.

Not everything fits on paper. You also learn a craft by working alongside someone.

What can AI do here, and what can't it?

An AI assistant on your own documents first looks up the relevant pieces and answers from them, with the source included. This approach is called RAG.

But the assistant only knows what has been written down. If a document is out of date, so is the answer. And sometimes an answer sounds convincing but is wrong. That is called a hallucination. So read the source when a lot depends on it. Informing people about the work and its risks remains your task as an employer (Article 8 of the Working Conditions Act, Arbowet).

What should you watch out for with your data?

In July 2026 the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, AP) published a tool for organisations that want to give generative AI access to existing files. The AP recommends first checking whether it can be done without personal data, and finding out who is allowed to access which files. The assistant must not show anyone anything that person is not allowed to open themselves. If personal data is involved, the GDPR applies.

When is it not needed?

A small team with a handful of documents? Then a tidy shared folder is often enough. Is there already AI in your office suite? See what it can do first. Read which AI suits your business.

How I help you with this

In the business analysis I look at which questions keep coming back, where your documents are and who is allowed to see what. If a standard feature in your package is enough, I tell you so; I don't receive any commission. If not, I build the assistant myself, with the source for every answer. You then get a proposal with a fixed price in advance. Read more about AI in your business or about an AI assistant on your own documents.

Frequently asked questions

This is an explanation in plain language, not legal advice.

Sources: CBS: the labour market in figures 2025 (in Dutch), Working Conditions Act (Arbowet), Article 8 (in Dutch) and AP: tool on generative AI and the GDPR (in Dutch). Consulted on 22 October 2026.