As part of the OSL Intelligence rollout, we’re progressively introducing practical AI improvements designed to make your workday that much easier.
Helping people get the most out of their software has changed a lot over the years.
When OSL first started, help often meant photocopied pages from printed user manuals. They were kept beside the computer, highlighted, scribbled on and referred to whenever someone needed to remember how to do something.
As technology changed, so did the way we provided help.
Printed manuals gave way to PDF manuals, making information easier to distribute and keep up to date. These were followed by a range of online help manuals and knowledge articles, allowing users to search for answers without having to work their way through a large manual.
We then introduced video tutorials, recognising that sometimes the easiest way to learn something is simply to watch someone do it.
Each of these changes had the same objective: make it quicker and easier for people to get the help they need.
Today we're taking the next step with the introduction of Ask OSL, our new AI-powered help assistant built directly into OSL.
Instead of working out which manual to open, what section to look under, or which words to search for, users can simply ask a question in everyday language.
Ask OSL searches the OSL knowledge base for the information relevant to the question and uses AI to provide a clear, useful answer.
You don't need to know what the feature is called.
You don't need to know which section of the help system contains the answer.
You just need to know what you want to do.
For example:
"How do I add a new staff member?"
"How do I withdraw a listing?"
"How do I change the salesperson on a property?"
"Where do I enter a solicitor?"
Ask OSL can use the information contained in our help resources to answer the question directly.
There is an important difference between simply adding a general-purpose AI chatbot to a piece of software and what we're doing with Ask OSL.
Ask OSL is being built around OSL's own knowledge base and the way our software actually works.
The information we've accumulated through years of user manuals, online help, support documentation and tutorials now becomes the knowledge that Ask OSL can draw upon.
In many ways, this isn't the replacement of everything that came before it.
It's the next evolution of it.
The knowledge that started life on photocopied pages is becoming something users can now have a conversation with.
Our aim is straightforward.
When someone is working in OSL and needs help, we want them to be able to ask the question where they are, when they need it, without having to leave the program and start searching elsewhere.
Ask OSL won't mean the end of our Help Desk or our other support resources. There will always be situations where talking to someone is the best way to solve a problem.
Instead, Ask OSL gives users another option — particularly for those everyday "How do I...?" questions where the answer may already exist in our knowledge base.
It also means our Help Desk can spend more time helping customers with the questions and situations that genuinely need personal assistance.
Looking back, the progression is quite remarkable:
Photocopied user manuals → PDF manuals → online help → video tutorials → Ask OSL with AI
The technology has changed enormously.
The objective hasn't.
Help people find the answer they need, as quickly and simply as possible.
Ask OSL is the latest step in that journey — and we're looking forward to seeing where it takes us next.