Sometimes you need more control on the format and content of your auto-generated Briink questionnaires.
The custom instructions feature is currently available with Briink’s ESG questionnaire assistant, and it enables you to extract your ESG and sustainability insights in the format and with the methodological requirements that you need.
There are two main types of user instructions that you can tweak with Briink’s assistant.
First, you can now specify the format of your answers - for example, bullet points, or the language you need your answer in.
You can also add more contextualized information to your prompt, helping you get the results you are looking for.
Please note that this feature is currently still in Beta, meaning that we released the first version and we are gathering early feedback to refine it further. If you have any feedback on this feature, we would be super glad for you to share it with us.
Why do you need instructions when using AI assistants like Briink?
Within ESG, there is a broad range of terms and methodological approaches, which can create confusion when collecting, analyzing and reporting data.
While a human analyst is usually trained to calculate metrics based on a given methodology, an AI assistant might not necessarily be aware of the internal methodology used, until now!
With user instructions: we can inform the AI assistant about things like methodology and output format, so that it can apply them when calculating metrics like carbon emissions, or sourcing qualitative information hidden across multiple data sources.
What we will cover in this article:
In this article, we will cover:
User instructions available in Briink
The difference between user instructions at the questionnaire and at the question-level
How to add user instructions at the question and at the questionnaire-level
Final tips
Which instructions can you provide in Briink?
Currently, you can add the following user instructions in Briink:
Language
The default language of Briink is English. However, the tool might return answers in a language other than English if your question is in that language, and/or if the document contains information in that language.
However, this can be rather inconsistent. By specifying a language through “user instructions”, you can ensure that the model will return your desired answers in the language you choose.
If you want to learn more about the languages supported by Briink, you can find more information here.
By specifying a language in the “instructions” feature, you can get outputs in languages other than English.
Output structure
User instructions also allow you to specify the output format. Currently, three format options are available:
“Keep it short”.
“Answer in bullet points”.
“Start with a summary”.
Keywords
By adding keywords, you can specify synonyms or related terms that might be useful for your analysis, increasing the likelihood that your input returns accurate results.
💡 For example, if you are looking to identify a company's ESG targets, you might include other common phrases such as 'ESG roadmap', 'ESG pillars', 'ESG strategy'.
Clarifications
By adding clarification to terminologies, the tool will be able to provide an answer that is aligned with your methodology.
These ensure that the model uses the right approach when calculating complex ESG metrics like GHG emissions, or when gathering qualitative information around less clear topics.
💡For example, if you are looking for data on a firm's pollution, but you do not want CO2 emissions included, you can provide the clarification: 'Carbon dioxide is not considered an air pollutant for our analysis'.
If you want to learn more about how to master user instructions, and in particular keywords and clarifications, you can download a more detailed user guide addressing different examples and use cases.
How do you enable user instructions?
Now that we have covered what user instructions are, and what they do, we will give some technical tips on navigating and using the feature.
The first thing to note is that “user instructions” are currently only available with the ESG questionnaire assistant.
The feature allows you to add instructions both at the questionnaire level (applying the rules to all of the questions in your assessment) and at the individual question level (giving you the flexibilty to influence the results more granularly).
Please note: When adding instructions at both the question and the questionnaire levels, the instructions at the level of the individual question will always override those added at the level of the entire questionnaire. Since most ESG questionnaires contain information about very diverse topics, we recommend to use the questionnaire-level instructions for formatting, languages and other requests that you want applied systematically across your assessment, and to stick with question-level instructions for methodological instructions (e.g. keywords and clarifications). This will ensure a better quality of the tool’s responses.
Adding user instructions at the question-level
To add user instructions at the question-level to a new questionnaire, navigate to “manage questionnaires” and then click on “+ new questionnaire”.
When you type your first question, press “enter”. You will find the “instructions” button right next to the question you just added, on the right-hand side.
Click on the “instructions” button.
Now you can add your user instructions, specifying your desired format, for things like “language”, the output structure or format, or to include more methodological clarifications.
To add user instructions at the questionnaire-level, the procedure is roughly the same. Just make sure to click on the “instructions” button on the top bar, on the right-hand side of your questionnaire’s header.
As a reminder, we suggest using the questionnaire level instructions for your formatting requests, while using the question level instructions to drive better results.
You can also use user instructions on an existing questionnaire template.
Simply navigate to “Manage questionnaires” > Select a private questionnaire > "Edit”.
Important: Unlike private questionnaires, public questionnaires are not editable. To deploy user instructions on a public questionnaire template, you first need to clone the questionnaire in question. You can do so by selecting the three vertical dots next to the questionnaire you want to edit.
Frequently asked questions about instructions
I want the model to recognize specific acronyms, how can I do that?
You can instruct the model to recognize a specific acronym by adding a "clarification" in the instruction feature. For example, you can write "EUT means EU Taxonomy".
How granular do instructions need to be? E.g. do I need to instruct Briink to recognize plural forms?
Generally, the more specific your instructions are, the better. But there are some exceptions. For example, LLM models are trained on a huge set of data from real-world language, so they are naturally able to work with linguistic concepts like plural and singular forms.
Conclusion and final tips
Instructions allow you to get more control over your pre-filled ESG questionnaires and assessments. They can be enabled both at the question and questionnaire level, and can be used to influence the output format or the methodology used to extract the metrics in questions.
If you have further questions, or need more tips to master user instructions, do not hesitate to let us know through intercom or by reaching out to your account manager or emailing support@briink.com.
They will be more than happy to support you!