Empower Your Nonprofit with Azure AI: Building a Smart Knowledge Base

In today's digital age, providing quick and accurate answers to customer queries is essential for any business. Azure AI Language Studio offers powerful question answering capabilities that enable organizations to create and train a knowledge base of questions and answers. Creating a knowledge base with Azure AI Language Studio can be incredibly beneficial for a nonprofit organization. Here are some compelling reasons why you might want to consider it:

• Enhancing Customer Support: A knowledge base allows you to provide quick and accurate answers to common questions from your supporters, volunteers, and beneficiaries. This can significantly improve customer support by reducing response times and ensuring that inquiries are handled efficiently.
  
  
• Streamlining Operations: By automating the process of answering frequently asked questions, you can free up your staff to focus on more strategic tasks. This can lead to increased productivity and better use of resources, which is crucial for nonprofits operating with limited budgets.
  
  
• Improving Accessibility: A well-structured knowledge base can make information more accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. Azure AI Language Studio's natural language processing capabilities ensure that users can find the information they need easily, regardless of how they phrase their questions.
  
  
• Enhancing Engagement: Providing timely and accurate information can enhance engagement with your supporters and beneficiaries. When people feel that their questions are answered promptly, they are more likely to stay involved and support your cause.
  
  
• Data-Driven Insights: Azure AI Language Studio can provide valuable insights into the types of questions being asked and the information that is most sought after. This data can help you understand the needs and concerns of your community better and tailor your programs and services accordingly.
  
  
• Cost-Effective Solution: Creating a knowledge base with Azure AI Language Studio is a cost-effective solution for managing inquiries. It reduces the need for extensive human intervention and can be scaled easily as your organization grows.

Now that we understand the importance, let's build our first knowledge base!

Creating a Language Resource

To get started, you need to create a Language resource in the Azure portal:

1. Open the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com/?azure-portal=true and sign in with your Microsoft account.
2. Click the "Create a resource."

    

3. Search for "Language service."

    

4. Select "Create a language service plan" and configure the following settings:

    

    
   • Default features: Keep the default features.
   • Custom features: Select custom question answering.

      

5. On the Create Language page, specify the following settings:
   • Subscription: Your Azure subscription.
   • Resource group: Select an existing resource group or create a new one.
   • Region: Select a region (e.g., East US 2).
   • Name: A unique name for your language resource.
   • Pricing tier: Select a pricing tier.
   • Azure search region: Any available location.
   • Azure search pricing tier: Select your Azure search pricing tier.

      

     6. Review and create the resource and wait for the deployment to complete.

Creating a New Project

Next, you'll create a new project in Language Studio:

1. Open the Language Studio portal at Language Studio - Microsoft Azure and sign in with your Microsoft account.

    

2. If prompted, select your Azure directory, subscription, and Language resource.
3. In the Create new menu, select "Custom question answering."

    

4. On the Choose language setting for resource page, select "I want to select the language when I create a project in this resource" and click Next.

    

5. Enter the following details on the Enter basic information page:

    

   • Language resource: Choose your Language resource.
   • Azure search resource: Choose your Azure search resource.
   • Name: Choose a name
   • Description: A simple knowledge base
   • Source language: English
   • Default answer when no answer is returned: No answer found
6. Review and create the project.

Adding Content to the Knowledge Base

Now, you'll add content to your knowledge base from your appropriate document. From demo purposes I will be added the Q&A from our public NTA Landing Page.

1. On the Manage sources page, select "Add source" and choose "URLs."
2. In the Add URLs box, enter the following details:
   • URL name: Enter URL name, for demo purposes I used NTA.
   • URL: Enter URL, for demo purposes I use the NTA Landing Page
   • Classify file structure: Auto-detect
3. Select "Add all" to add the URL to your knowledge base.

Editing the Knowledge Base

You can customize your knowledge base by adding custom question-and-answer pairs:

1. Expand the left panel and select "Edit knowledge base."
2. Select "+" to add a new question pair.
3. In the Add a new question answer pair dialog box, enter your question as the answer, then select "Done."
4. Save your knowledge base.

Training and Testing the Knowledge Base

Once your knowledge base is set up, you can train and test it:

1. Select "Test" at the top of the Question answer pairs pane.

    

2. In the test pane, enter one of your questions to see the response.
3. Try other questions as well.

Deploying the Knowledge Base

Finally, you can deploy your knowledge base as a client application:

1. In the left panel, select "Deploy knowledge base."
2. Select "Deploy" at the top of the page and confirm the deployment.

   3. Next step will be creating your bot. https://aka.ms/qna-create-bot 

By following these steps, you can create a robust knowledge base using Azure AI Language Studio, providing quick and accurate answers to your customers' questions. This not only enhances customer satisfaction but also streamlines your support processes. To learn more about language services, please visit: Fundamentals of question answering with the Language Service - Training | Microsoft Learn