A lamp shines in the darkness as the sun sets on Yale's campus

Beacon: AI chatbot for YaleSites content

Helping visitors find information and navigate easily

Try Beacon on this Website

YaleSites Beacon 

The YaleSites team has developed an integrated AI feature we call Beacon. The AI agent is built into the YaleSites platform. When it’s enabled for a website, by the YaleSites team, site visitors can ask the questions they have to a conversational chatbot. 

The AI understands natural language, finds the most relevant pages on the YaleSite, and using AI synthesizes the content into a response. Responses include the sources of where the content was found so website visitors can verify and learn more.  

Unlock the Potential of Your Published Content

Like any feature on the platform such as content collections or views, Beacon is a feature that helps organize your content to create an improved user experience. 

Website visitors can have a conversation with an AI assistant that is focused on only your YaleSite website. 

Asking YaleSites Beacon a question example

Your content makes the AI trustworthy

Content that is up to date, accurate, and clear creates a reliable chatbot. 

Great content makes great answers

Units that turn on Beacon do quality checks to make sure answers are correct, add information that helps improve responses, and adjust settings as they learn what works. 

  • Test Regularly

    Test regularly by asking it questions about your website’s content

  • Review Responses

    Review answers for accuracy and completeness 

  • Keep Content Current

    Update your sites content as needed

  • Keep Testing

    Repeat the process regularly, each effort to test and improve your content will improve your chatbot

Beacon in Action at Yale

Several Yale units are already using Beacon to help their audiences find information. See how different units are using it. 

Helping Their Audiences Find the Answers They Need

Benefits of Beacon

  • Timely

    Content updates are reflected in Beacon in minutes

  • Secure

    Conversations are secure, private, and are not used to train Large Language Models

  • Supported

    Several successfully launched chatbots

  • Highly Available

    Available to your visitors 24/7

The Self Service Partnership

YaleSites is now offering Beacon as a self-service feature upon approval from the Office of Public Affairs and Communication. Units that have this tool are making a commitment to test the chatbot and maintain their content. The YaleSites team provides documentation and training. 

Learn more about Beacon’s Support Guidelines

YaleSites Beacon meets Yale’s Security and Privacy Standards

The use of Beacon has been approved by Yale’s Information Security Office. Conversations are not saved or stored. Your data is never used to train AI.

Learn more about Yale University privacy

Frequently Asked Questions

Beacon reads your published pages and PDFs to create a searchable index of your content. When someone asks a question, it finds relevant content and summarizes it in plain language, always linking back to your source pages. Content updates appear in Beacon within about 5 minutes.

Traditional search shows a list of pages that might contain your answer. Beacon reads those pages and gives you the answer directly, with links to verify. It’s conversational—visitors ask questions in natural language instead of guessing keywords.

Beacon is available at no cost to approved YaleSites. The investment is your team’s time to prepare content and maintain quality.

The process typically takes several months. Most of that time is spent improving your content and testing quality. 
 


 

Yes. Beacon can be disabled easily. But we recommend investing in the content preparation and quality process first—most issues are content problems, not Beacon problems.

Beacon can make mistakes. Every answer includes links to source content so visitors can verify. If you find incorrect answers during testing, the fix is usually improving your content.

Learn More About Beacon