Ask AI

Ask AI lets you talk to Scout in plain language to look things up, get help using Scout, and prepare actions such as moving a candidate to another stage.

Note Ask AI is marked Beta in the app. Some answers and actions are only available to roles that can already see that data in Scout.

Before you start

• You need to be signed in to Scout. Ask AI works in the web app and on WhatsApp.
• Ask AI only sees what your own Scout account can see. It follows the same permissions you have everywhere else, for example revenue figures are limited to finance roles.
• To use Scout on WhatsApp you first link your number (see Use Scout on WhatsApp).

What Ask AI can do

Look things up (no confirmation needed). Examples:

• Search candidates, for example “Search for backend engineers in Singapore”, and narrow a result set with a follow-up.
• Read a candidate profile, notes, or a short brief on one person.
• Check a project or job pipeline, stale applications, or a daily digest of what needs attention.
• Ask about placements, revenue and time-to-fill, or talent pool counts.
• Look up client contacts and companies, and business development prospects.
• Answer “how do I” questions about Scout from these docs.

Take actions (always ask you to confirm first). Examples:

• Add a candidate to a project or move candidates to a stage, for example “Move Jane Tan to the Interview stage”.
• Add a note to a candidate, create a job or a project, update a job, or log a note on a client.
• Save an email draft, set a reminder, enroll candidates in a sequence, or send outreach.
• Schedule, cancel, or resend an interview invitation.

Before any of these changes your data, Scout shows a card with a Confirm and Cancel choice (the exact button wording can vary by action). Nothing is changed until you confirm. Bulk actions are limited to a set number of candidates per confirmation.

Note Which actions are available depends on how Scout is set up for your organization. Sending outreach and enrolling in sequences also need your organization’s outbound messaging settings to allow it. Some actions, such as interview scheduling and job actions, are available on request. If an action is not offered, ask your admin.

Steps

OPEN Ask AI

You can open it in any of these ways:

1. Click the search bar in the header. Its tooltip is Ask Scout (⌘K).
2. Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) to open the same dialog.

The dialog has two tabs: Search (an instant lookup across candidates, jobs and projects) and Ask AI (the conversation with Scout). Click Ask AI to switch to the conversation.

ASK a question

1. In the Ask AI tab, type your question in the Ask Scout anything box and send it.
2. Or click one of the example prompts shown on an empty chat. The examples change with the page you are on.

Use the Attach button to add a file (PDF, Word, text or image) when you want Scout to work with a resume or job description.

CHECK what page Ask AI is looking at

Above the chat you will see Asking about: followed by a label. This is the page you were on when you opened Ask AI:

With this context you can say “Who’s shortlisted for this role?” or “Summarise this candidate” without naming them. Ask AI knows which page you are on, not its content.

ANALYZE a job description and compare candidates

1. Paste the job description into the chat, or click Attach and add a PDF, Word or text JD. Very long text may need to be attached as a file.
2. Ask for the requirements, for example “What are the must-haves in this JD?”. Scout lists the requirements the JD states and suggests search filters. It does not invent requirements and it does not change any saved search.
3. To rank candidates, ask “Compare these candidates to this JD” or “Suggest a shortlist”. Scout compares a limited number of candidates you can access against the JD, with quotes as evidence. Where there is no evidence in the profile it says the item is unknown.
4. Shortlisting is a separate step. Ask “Add Jane Tan to the Senior Engineer job” and confirm the card.

ASK talent intelligence questions

Ask about your own candidate database, not the whole market:

• Counts and breakdowns, for example “How many data engineers do we have in Singapore?” or “Top companies and skills for product managers”. Breakdowns cover location, company, title, function, skills, seniority, source, date added and years of experience.
• Company alumni, for example “Who used to work at Grab?”, “Who currently works at Grab?” or “Who moved from Grab to Sea in the last 12 months?”. It returns a short list of people with name, title and company, never contact details, and says when only a sample was inspected.
• Market map, for example “Give me a market map of fintech engineers in Singapore”: top employers, titles, skills and locations in your Scout database.

These answers come from candidates your account can see. Talent intelligence needs a recruiting role. If the question is too broad, Scout asks you to narrow it.

ASK questions about a document

Ask a question about a candidate’s stored documents or resumes, or about a file you attached, for example “What does this resume say about Python?”. Scout returns the most relevant passages and answers only from them, with source references. If the passages do not answer the question it says so. To check an upload, ask “Is my upload finished?” and Scout reports whether it is queued, processing, needs clarification, completed or failed.

DRAFT outreach

Ask for “an intro email to Jane Tan for the Senior Engineer role”. Choose the channel (email, WhatsApp or LinkedIn) and purpose (intro, follow-up, interview invite, check-in or thank-you), and add points to cover. Scout writes a text-only draft using facts it can see. It never sends it and the draft has no contact details, so copy it into your own channel. Sending is a different action that asks you to confirm.

GET a daily digest

Ask “Who should I contact today?” or “What needs my attention?”. Scout returns a short, read-only list from your active projects: upcoming interviews, open invoices (finance roles only), candidates waiting on a reply or feedback, stale applications (you can ask for a specific number of days without a stage move), and recent placements. Each item has a reason and a suggested next step. On the web the digest shows as a card with Draft outreach and Candidate brief shortcuts. The digest is on request only. The daily digest preference is stored but scheduled delivery is not available yet.

CONTINUE a conversation on the other channel

Conversations on web and WhatsApp are separate unless you ask to continue one.

1. Say “Continue this on WhatsApp” (or “on the web”) in the chat.
2. Scout replies with a one-time code. It works once, only for you, and only for a limited time.
3. Send that code as your message in the other channel.

Scout carries over a short summary of your last requests and the candidates, projects or searches you were looking at, and only what your account can access. Pending confirmations are not carried over, so confirm again if needed.

SAVE preferences

Tell Scout to remember a small setting, for example “Always keep answers concise”. Scout asks you to confirm, then saves it. You can set:

Ask “Show my preferences” to list them, or “Forget my response style” (or “Forget all my preferences”) to remove them. Scout only saves a preference when you ask in that message. It never saves candidate facts, contact details or credentials.

USE Scout on WhatsApp

1. Go to Settings > Integrations and find Talk to Scout AI Agent.
2. Click Connect. In the Link your WhatsApp dialog, click Open WhatsApp Web and send the pre-filled message. Or copy the code and send it from your phone. The code works for a limited time, so use it soon after you create it.
3. Once linked, message Scout in WhatsApp. You can send a question or search, a resume, a job description, or a voice note.

Actions on WhatsApp also ask for confirmation before changing anything.

The help command. Send help in the WhatsApp chat to see what Scout can do there. The reply lists searching and refining candidates, adding candidates to a project or job, adding notes, creating a job from a JD, uploading a resume, reading records and asking how to do things in Scout, plus the docs link https://docs.getscout.ai. It also lists these commands: help, cancel (reset the current flow) and who are you. A greeting such as “hi” or “hello” shows a short introduction followed by the same help. The help text is a quick summary. Scout can do more than it lists, as described above.

What you should see

• A reply in the chat, with result cards for candidates, rankings or a digest when relevant.
• For how-to questions, numbered steps and a docs link.
• For actions, a confirmation card. After you choose, it shows Confirmed or Cancelled.

Privacy and limits

• Ask AI acts as you. It cannot see projects, candidates, clients or financials your account cannot access.
• Page-aware answers use the type of page you are on, not what is on screen.
• Actions are never run silently. You confirm each one.
• Candidate lookups cover your Scout data. Searching the public web is a separate step that Scout only does when you ask for it, for example “search the web for senior data engineers in Singapore”. Daily limits apply to external web searches (your administrator can change them). Each search returns a short list of public leads, each with a source link. Leads are marked “Public web leads - unverified, not in Scout” and nothing is added to Scout. If you reach the limit, Scout tells you and you can try again tomorrow.
• If the docs do not cover a how-to question, Scout says so rather than guessing.
• Answers are generated and can be wrong. Check important details such as names, dates and amounts before acting.

Common problems

Related pages

• New Search
• Settings
• Integrations
• Troubleshoot
• FAQ