Ask Trail is Trail's AI-powered search feature for client profiles. Ask a question in plain English about the client you have open. The Ask Trail feature reads their whole file (position, products, opportunities, timeline, meeting notes, transcripts, AI summaries and emails) and gives you a direct answer, with links to the records it used. It's like having an assistant who has read the entire file before you walk into the meeting.
In this article you'll learn:
How to open Ask Trail from a client's profile, and what happens while it gets ready
Asking Trail, including using personalised FAQs
How to check the answers’ sources by jumping straight to your profiles’ records
How to find, pin and pick up past conversations, including ones your colleagues started
How it works
Opening the Conversation Pane & Data Ingestion
Open any client's profile and you'll see Ask Trail at the end of the profile tabs, after Profile, Documents, Position and Applications. The pane sits alongside the page instead of replacing it, so you can keep working on the profile while you chat. You can use it on the Profile, Documents, Position and Applications pages, and close or reopen it at any time from the same tab.
Opening Ask Trail for the first time
You’ll notice the panel will take a moment to get ready. You'll see it work through the client's information step by step:
Checking Position, Product, Opportunity & Timeline information
Reading meeting notes
Reviewing meeting transcripts
Studying AI meeting summaries
Scanning emails
Finishing up
When the feature is fully up-to-date, a green tick appears and the conversation opens. This usually takes a few seconds, or a little longer for clients with a long history of meetings and emails. But we get that you’re pretty busy- so if you close the pane while it is loading, it carries on in the background and will be ready when you come back.
Conversing with Ask Trail & using Profile FAQs
Type your question in the message box at the bottom of the pane and press Enter. Ask the way you'd ask a colleague, for example:
"When does their fixed rate expire?"
"What cover do they have in place, and who is it with?"
"When did we last speak, and what did we agree to follow up on?"
"Give me a summary of this client before my meeting."
While generating a response, it tells you what it's doing: reading your question, gathering profile data, preparing a briefing pack, searching notes, emails and transcripts, then working through the details. It leads each answer with the direct response and puts the supporting detail underneath. You get what you need at a glance and can read on if you want more.
You don't have to wait for one answer before you ask the next question. Anything you type while Ask Trail is busy is queued and answered in order, so you can send a few questions in a row and read the answers as they arrive. Each question shows who asked it and when, so your team can follow the conversation later.
Using Profile FAQs
Profile FAQs are questions/prompts you’re likely to ask frequently across many profiles, such as a pre-meeting summary, upcoming expiries or outstanding follow-ups.
Add them under Manage your FAQs in the conversation pane and they appear as one-click buttons at the start of every new conversation. To bring them back up mid-conversation, click the Your FAQs link above the message box.
Your Profile FAQs are personal to you, and you can edit or delete them at any time.
Response Feedback
Every answer has a thumbs up and a thumbs down. Use them freely: you can add a reason and a note if you like. Feedback goes to the Trail team only and helps shape how Ask Trail improves. There's also a copy button for dropping an answer into an email or a file note.
Navigating to Sources
Ask Trail is built to show its working. Under each answer is a Sources section that lists the records the answer came from, grouped by type, for example "Loans (2)", "Policies (1)", "Meetings (1)" or "Contacts (3)". Expand a group to see the records themselves, described the way they appear in Trail rather than in it’s own words.
Click any source to go straight to it:
Loans and Policies open the product
Opportunities open on the client's timeline
Meetings open the meeting summary
Documents open in the document preview
Position items take you to the right part of the Position page, such as Incomes, Expenses, Assets & Investments or Properties
Contacts open the contact's details
If you're already on the Profile page, the record opens there, so you don't lose your place in the conversation. From other pages, it opens in a new tab. That makes it quick to check anything it tells you against the record before you rely on it.
The Conversation Library
Every conversation is saved automatically against the client. Anyone in your team with access to that profile can see it. Click Library at the top of the pane to browse them.
Filter the list by All conversations, Started by me or I've commented in. That last one shows every conversation where you've asked at least one question, even if someone else started it.
Search by conversation name or by the questions asked in it
Pin the conversations you come back to often so they stay at the top of the list
Rename, Duplicate or Delete a conversation from its actions menu. Duplicate makes a copy, so you can take the questions in a new direction without cluttering the original conversation.
Click New Conversation whenever you want to start fresh. When you reopen a saved conversation, you pick up exactly where you or a colleague left off. For example, a pre-meeting summary one adviser asked for is there for the assistant preparing the follow-up.
FAQs
How is my client's data handled in Trail's AI features?
Your data is very important to us, read here to understand what steps we take to ensure your data is protected: AskTrail AI Privacy, Security and Data Use
Can I rely on Ask Trail's answers?
Ask Trail is designed to answer only from what's in the client's file and to show you where each answer came from. Like any AI tool, it can still get things wrong or miss context. Check the source records before you rely on an answer for advice or compliance purposes and let us know if you notice Ask Trail providing an incorrect response so we can improve it.
What can Ask Trail read?
Ask Trail only reads information on the client profile you have open. It can't see other clients or anything across your organisation as a whole. This first version is designed to help advisers and assistants get on top of a single client's file quickly. Over time, we hope to grow it into an organisation-wide assistant that supports more roles, such as compliance and FAP owners, meaning cross-organisational reading and can update records in Trail, not just read them.
Who can see my conversations?
Anyone in your organisation with access to the client's profile can see every conversation on that profile. Conversations can't be made private, so treat them like any other shared record in Trail.
What languages can I use with Ask Trail?
English only for now, for both your questions and Ask Trail's answers.
Why isn't Ask Trail picking up something I just added?
Ask Trail reads the client's notes, transcripts, summaries and emails when you open the pane. If you've added something since then, such as a new file note, an uploaded transcript or a forwarded email, close and reopen it from the Ask Trail tab. It will re-read the profile and include the new information in its answers.