Beacon is an AI-powered chatbot that helps visitors find information on your YaleSite by answering questions in natural language. This page outlines Beacon’s key capabilities and how that can benefit your website and Yale unit.
Three ways Beacon Works for You
Manage Knowledge Base
Site owners control what Beacon can access. You manage your own content and curate what gets indexed, you have the ability to turn off indexing for specific pages or PDFs. You decide what Beacon knows.
Find Information
Beacon searches your published YaleSites pages and PDFs, combining information from multiple sources to answer questions in plain language. Visitors get comprehensive answers without clicking through pages.
Create Efficiencies
Navigating Yale is complex and time consuming. Beacon improves how information is found by making your policies, procedures, and FAQs accessible through conversation. The more you publish, the more questions Beacon handles reducing repetitive inquiries to your team.
Sourced responses create trust
When Beacon provides an answer, it includes numbered citations that link back to the source content. Visitors can click these citations to see the page title, the specific section referenced, and any associated metadata. This transparency builds trust since Beacon isn’t making things up, it’s summarizing your published content.
Giving Beacon Your Organization’s Voice
Customize how Beacon responds using system instructions
System instructions are site-wide guidance that shapes tone, clarifies terminology, and provides context specific to your unit.
Examples of what system instructions can do:
- Set the tone of responses (formal, friendly, conversational)
- Clarify ambiguous terms unique to your organization
- Provide context Beacon should always consider
- Guide how Beacon handles different question types
Helping visitors get started with their questions
Site admins can add up to four clickable prompts that visitors can choose from. Starter questions will appear on chatbot’s screen everytime a new conversation is opened. Adding starter questions to the screen are optional.
To access starter questions go to Settings-> Integrations->YaleSites AI Settings
Customize Your Disclaimer Message
Add a custom disclaimer to Beacon’s responses to set clear expectations. Whether you need to remind visitors to verify information, clarify limitations, or provide context.
Understanding Beacon’s Boundaries
Beacon is designed specifically to search your YaleSite content, it’s not a general-purpose AI assistant.
Beacon cannot:
- Search the internet or other Yale websites
- Access login-protected pages (CAS authentication)
- Perform actions, submit forms, or build applications
- Remember previous conversations or save chat history
Privacy and Data Security FAQ
No conversation data is stored or used for AI model training.
No. Beacon does not save, store, or log conversations. Each chat session is temporary and private.
Usage metrics (like click counts) are tracked through Siteimprove for analytics. Microsoft screens for malicious use. Individual questions and answers are not recorded.
All Beacon responses include a disclaimer that AI-generated responses may contain inaccuracies. Visitors are responsible for verifying information.