How long does it take to set up a Company Brain?

A focused first version for one department typically takes a few weeks: collecting and cleaning documents, building and connecting them, testing against real questions, then training the team. The timing depends mainly on how quickly documents and answers are gathered.

Who should own the Company Brain inside our company?

One person accountable for keeping sources current, ideally the department lead for the area it covers, with each document having an owner. Without an owner it goes stale.

How do we know if the answers are accurate?

Test with 30–50 real questions before go-live, check that answers cite the right source, and review the questions it couldn't answer each week. Accuracy improves by fixing the documents.

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Company Brain20 September 20267 min read

How to Set Up a Company Brain: Sources, Checks and Keeping It Current

A Company Brain is set up in stages: pick sources, structure them, test the answers, go live and keep it fresh. Here's the whole process, what to check at each stage and who should own it afterwards.

By Garvit Jain, Vardhan AI

Setting up a Company Brain is less about technology than about deciding what your business actually knows — and who keeps it true. Here's the sequence we use, and the checks that separate a Brain people trust from one they stop asking.

Stage 1: choose the scope and the sources

Pick one department (see what goes in first) and list its sources: pricing files, product catalogues, policies, SOPs, brand guidelines, the CRM or sheet, and a few examples of good replies. For each source note who owns it and where the latest version lives. Also decide what stays out for now.

Stage 2: clean before you load

One current version per document — retire duplicates and old rate cards
Fill obvious gaps: if a policy is only "what we usually do", write it down (see turning owner knowledge into SOPs)
Tag each document to a department so answers come from the right place
Set who can see what (see data safety and access control)

Stage 3: build, connect and structure

Your documents are indexed and connected so the Brain can answer from them, and linked to the tools where work happens — WhatsApp, email, a CRM or a Google Sheet. Most small businesses don't have an elaborate CRM, and they don't need one: a sheet can serve as the system of record.

Stage 4: test with real questions

This is the check that matters. Take 30–50 real questions from the last month — the ones your team actually got — and run them through. For each answer ask: is it correct, is it complete, did it use the right source, and did it say "I don't know" when it should have? Fix the documents, not just the answers. Repeat until the failures are rare and understood.

Stage 5: go live with guardrails

Start with drafts a person approves, not automatic sending
Send exceptions and anything high-stakes to a human
Train the team on what it's for and what it isn't
Agree how to report a wrong answer — and who fixes it

Stage 6: keep it current

A Brain goes stale the same way a wiki does, unless someone owns it. Three habits keep it healthy: an owner for each source, a regular review of the questions it couldn't answer, and a check on freshness. Our Brain shows three simple health signals — how many of your topics have documents (coverage), how recently they were updated (freshness) and how confident its answers are — so you can see staleness instead of discovering it from a wrong answer.