Research Assistant is an interactive, AI-powered tool in CENTRL that helps you quickly generate insights by asking questions in a conversational chat experience. It can reference your CENTRL platform data (e.g., selected Partners, related assessments and files), any ad hoc files you upload, and—if enabled—relevant external web sources, and it will show you the underlying sources used to produce each response for transparency.
Note:
-
This feature is not available by default. If interested, please reach out to your Account Manager or contact Support.
-
This article encompasses only the chat feature within Research Assistant. For more information regarding the Research Matrix Report functionality, please see the article below:
This article covers the following topics:
To use Research Assistant, users will start by creating a Chats. A Chat is a dedicated conversation where each followup should relate to previous queries or responses. You can return to a chat at any time and delete chats you no longer need.
Users can set the the context used to generate accurate answers by adding sources. Today these are three different source categories:
-
Partner / Product: Users can select one or more partners or products to search across their assessment and file data. For example selecting the ACME Global Fund and Yoyodyne Tech Fund will search across assessment and file data tied to either or these funds. Users can further refine which assessments and files should be used for each entity. Here, selecting the Term Sheets for both funds will search over the two Term Sheets only for these funds.
-
Adhoc Files: Users can upload files from their computer for the Research Assistant to analyze.
-
External Data: Enabling external data tells the Research Assistant to also search across the internet for content relevant to the specific conversation and query.
Each section in sources acts independently. If you add ACME Global Fund and Yoyodyne Tech Fund, upload 5 Adhoc Files, and enable External Web, the platform will search all files and assessments related to the two funds, the five adhoc files, and across the web.
If you do not select a source to begin with, the platform will try to identify the best matching sources from your question. For example if a user asks about the performance of the Norway Government Pension Fund in 2025, the platform will search for data related to this fund across the platform.
To start a Chat in the Research Assistant, selecting Partners is required. By sourcing Partners, the Research Assistant will focus on those specific Partners for that Chat.
-
. Navigate to the Research Assistant Module, then choose desired Partner (s) by clicking the Partner dropdown arrow.
Note: If a user is on a different Chat, that user will need to click the + Start New button first. Users new to this feature make skip clicking this button.
Note: If the Partner is selected without specifying specific Assessments, the Research Assistant will pull all Assessments related to that specific source.
-
Once added, the Partner(s) can be viewed under the Sources column. To interact with the Research Assistant, click on the Text Box to start chatting within the Chat.
Note: Chats will display a loading icon while processing your message.
To remove Partners, click on the Trash
icon and repeat the steps above to select a new source.
While the Research Assistant will retrieve information available on our platform related to selected Partners, users can also select specific assessments as a source of information for the Research Assistant to leverage.
-
Under the Sources Column, users can add specific assessments to the selected Partner by clicking the Assessment icon. This will open an overlay displaying the selected assessment(s).
-
Click on the + Select Portal Assessments to proceed.
-
At the Assessment Selection window, select the assessments source(s) by clicking on their associated checkbox(s). Once finished, click on the Select (#) and Close button to proceed.
-
Once added, assessments can be viewed under the Partner name, followed by the number of assessments being sourced.
To remove the assessments as sources, click on the Assessments icon to bring up the Assessments window and then click the Trash
-
Under the Source column, users can add AdHoc files directly from their device by clicking the + Upload Files button. Alternatively, users can drag and drop files into the window.
-
Select the file(s) to upload to the platform.
-
Once added, files can be viewed by clicking the Files dropdown arrow. To remove the file as a source, click on the Trash
For instances that have a SharePoint integration, an option to upload files from SharePoint will be available next to the + Upload Files button.
-
Click on the SharePoint button.
-
From the Import from SharePoint window, select files and click the Import button to upload.
Note:
-
This feature is not available by default. Please reach out to your Account Manager or contact Support to enable this feature for your organization.
-
For more information regarding SharePoint integrations, please see our full help article below:
Additionally, users can also select the Answer Library and/or External Data as a source for the Research Assistant. To do so, click on the Answer Library and/or External Data Toggle.
Note:
-
As noted above, enabling External Data as a source will increase the amount of time the Research Assistant will respond due to web search.
-
This Web Search can only be toggled when Research Mode is enabled from the chat box. If users only research based on defined data sources, please choose Quick Mode instead.
The Research Assistant will store various chats created by a user for access at a later date. These chats can be reviewed, renamed, or deleted at any time by a user.
To navigate to a previous Chat, click on the name of the chat under the Chat column on the left-hand side.
-
Under the Source column, locate the chat and click on the 3 dots icon. Select the Rename option in the menu.
-
Within the Rename window, type the desired name into the text field and click the Save button.
Note: By default, a chat will be named by the Research Assistant based on a user's first prompt.
-
How long should it take to respond to a query?
Right now the average response takes around one minute. We are working to constantly improve this and in future releases will support various levels of thinking so users can optimize for quick results or comprehensive analysis.
-
Can I ask questions across all of my data like which manager saw the largest AUM change?
Today Research Assistant best answers specific questions about one or several Partners/Products. We are working towards answering broader cross market questions.