Understanding the AI Assistant

Raycaster’s AI Assistant provides contextual help, generates content, and automates tasks directly within your workspace. This intelligent tool analyzes your data and helps you work more efficiently.

Accessing the AI Assistant

1

Open the Assistant Panel

Click the AI Assistant button on the top left of the sheet

2

Type Your Request

Enter your question or request in the text field at the bottom of the panel

3

Review Response

The AI will provide a response directly in the chat interface

The AI Assistant maintains context throughout your conversation. You can refer to previous questions and answers for follow-up questions without restating the entire context.

Key Capabilities

1. Contextual Help

The AI Assistant understands your current workspace context:

  • Sheet Context: Recognizes the sheet you’re viewing
  • Cell Context: Aware of your current selection
  • Research Context: Understands research outputs
  • User History: Remembers your previous interactions

2. Content Generation

The AI can generate various types of content:

  • Research Prompts: Create effective research queries
  • Data Analysis: Summarize insights from your data
  • Professional Content: Draft outreach messages, reports, and summaries
  • Response Templates: Generate template responses for common situations

3. Task Automation

The Assistant can perform actions directly in your workspace:

  • Batch Operations: Execute operations across multiple rows
  • Data Formatting: Clean and standardize data entries
  • Column Creation: Generate columns from natural language descriptions
  • View Configuration: Set up customized views of your data

Example Use Cases

Research Enhancement

Ask the AI Assistant to:

  • “Generate a prompt for finding ‘s main competitors”
  • “Improve my current research prompt to get more specific results about funding history”
  • “Analyze these research results and highlight the key growth indicators”
  • “Create a prompt that will extract the three most recent clinical trials from this company’s website”

Content Creation

The Assistant can help create professional content:

  • “Draft an outreach email to based on the research in Column C”
  • “Summarize this company profile into a brief overview for a team presentation”
  • “Create a competitive analysis comparing the selected rows in a tabular format”
  • “Generate a SWOT analysis based on the research data for this company”

Data Management

Use the Assistant for efficient data handling:

  • “Create a filter showing only companies with funding rounds in the last 6 months”
  • “Help me create a column to track engagement status with decision-makers”
  • “Format all company descriptions in Column D to be under 100 words”
  • “Generate a sort order that prioritizes companies with the most advanced pipeline candidates”

Working with the AI Assistant

Context Enrichment

For better results, provide context in your requests:

❌ Limited Context

”Write an outreach email.”

✓ Rich Context

”Write an outreach email to the CSO of this company, referencing their recent work in CAR-T therapy and our solution for improving T-cell persistence.”

Multi-Step Interactions

Break complex tasks into steps for better results:

1

Initial Request

Start with a clear primary goal

Example: “Help me identify the top decision-makers at this company.”

2

Refine Results

Ask follow-up questions to narrow down

Example: “From these people, who is most likely involved in technology acquisition?”

3

Take Action

Request a specific output or action

Example: “Draft a personalized outreach message to this person highlighting our platform’s relevance to their recent initiatives.”

Understanding AI Capabilities

The Assistant works best with:

  • Specific requests: Clear, focused questions
  • Workspace-related tasks: Questions about your data and research
  • Domain-relevant queries: Life sciences and biotech topics
  • Professional content: Business communication and analysis

The AI Assistant is not designed to provide medical advice, legal counsel, or highly regulated information. It should be used as a productivity tool with appropriate human review of all generated content.

Advanced Features

Custom Instructions

Set persistent preferences for how the AI responds:

  1. Click the Settings icon in the Assistant panel
  2. Select “Custom Instructions”
  3. Configure your preferences:
    • Communication style (formal, casual, technical)
    • Response format preferences
    • Industry terminology preferences
    • Default assumptions for your use case

Best Practices

For Effective Interactions

  1. Be specific: Clearly state what you need
  2. Provide context: Include relevant details
  3. Review outputs: Always verify AI-generated content
  4. Iterate: Refine requests if the first response isn’t ideal
  5. Include examples: Show the AI your preferred format when possible

For Content Creation

  1. Specify audience: Mention who will read the content
  2. Note tone: Indicate preferred formality level
  3. Indicate purpose: Explain what the content will be used for
  4. Set constraints: Mention length limitations or required elements
  5. Request revisions: Ask for specific adjustments to initial drafts
Pro Tip

The AI Assistant can help you optimize your research prompts. If you’re not getting the results you expect from a research column, ask the Assistant to review and improve your prompt.