AI is transforming customer support, offering faster and smarter ways to respond to customer requests. AI-powered suggested responses and AI agents can draft answers to support requests in seconds – but there's a catch. The quality of those answers depends entirely on the quality of the information your AI has access to.

In other words: bad inputs equal bad outputs. If your docs are unclear, incomplete, or outdated, your AI support tool won't be able to deliver the high-quality answers your customers expect. Here’s how to write docs and knowledge bases that set your AI (and your support team) up for success.

Why good documentation matters for AI-powered support

AI support tools they rely on the information you provide. If your docs or knowledge base is missing key product details, isn’t organized, or contains conflicting information, your AI will reflect those gaps in its responses.

Great documentation benefits everyone: customers get accurate answers, support teams save time, and your AI becomes a reliable partner to your team. But to write AI-friendly docs, you’ll need time and intention.

Principles for writing AI-optimized documentation

1. Be clear and concise: Write in plain, unambiguous language. Avoid jargon unless it’s widely understood by your audience. Short, direct sentences are easier for both AI and humans to process.

2. Structure matters: Organize content in a logical flow. Use headers, bullet points, and numbered lists to break up text. A structured format helps AI quickly pinpoint the right information.

3. Stay consistent: Use the same terminology across all documentation. If your product feature has three different names scattered across your docs, your AI (and your customers) will struggle to keep up.

4. Keep it updated: Regularly review and revise your documentation to reflect product changes, new features, and common customer issues. Outdated content leads to outdated answers.

Key practices for AI-friendly docs and knowledge bases

1. Brevity with context: While brevity is important, don’t skip critical context. Balance concise explanations with enough detail to address common questions.

2. Include examples: Add real-world examples, troubleshooting steps, or use cases where possible. These help AI understand and respond to nuanced questions.

3. Cross-reference related topics: Link to other relevant documentation to give both AI and users a complete picture. For example, a troubleshooting guide might link to setup instructions or FAQs.

Test and iterate

Even with strong documentation, it’s important to test how well your AI is performing. Ask it the same questions customers might, and check the results. If you don’t feel like the answers are accurate or fully complete, your customers won’t either. Think of your AI and documentation as a feedback loop – both improve as you refine them.

Writing good docs, even when you’re shipping fast 

Creating and maintaining great docs is an ongoing effort – the faster you launch and update features, the harder it is. Here are some tips to make it easier:

• Start small: Focus on documenting the most common customer questions first.

• Collaborate: Make sure your support and product teams are involved in your docs to ensure accuracy.

• Templatize where you can: Standardize the format of your documentation to save time, and maintain consistency.

• No docs = no launch (spicy take, we know): You shouldn’t launch any new features, or any product updates, without docs, as you risk your AI (and support team) not having full context of the update. 

Great support starts with great information. Take the time to refine your knowledge base, test your AI’s responses, and keep iterating. Your customers will thank you.

Sometimes, AI has a mind of its own and makes answers up. If your team wants to use an AI support platform, you'll want to test it fully before diving in. For example, we use a combination of some clever prompting and give the AI contextual information for your domain to reduce the chance that your AI will go off-script. Make sure that the AI support platform you settle on has guardrails like these in place to protect the quality of your answers.