This article applies to:Available in these QorusDocs Editions:

Enterprise+, Proposal Pro, QPilot Essential

QorusDocs helps you locate the right content and, where available, use AI to generate stronger draft responses.

Below, you’ll find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about QorusDocs search capabilities, including:

• What types of search does QorusDocs support?
• Which capability is best for different search scenarios?
• Where can I access Ask and Find?
• Which places can QorusDocs search?
• What happens when I choose Ask and some Content Sources are not available?
• Does QorusDocs support full text search?
• Does QorusDocs support the use of operators in search?
• Does QorusDocs support the use of KQL in search?
• Which OneDrive for Business files can QorusDocs search?
• Why are Ask and Find separate options?
• What happened to Smart Search and Keyword Search?
• Can a Content Source use both Ask and Find?
• How do I switch between Ask and Find?
• How do I make Content Sources available for Ask?
• Why do I see a warning when changing a Content Source’s search settings?

What types of search does QorusDocs support?

QorusDocs supports a clear and intuitive search experience with Ask and Find. In addition, users with access to QPilot can use QPilot to generate, refine, summarize, translate, and transform content using AI.

• Ask (Smart Search) when you want to ask a question or enter a requirement in natural language.
• Find (Keyword Search) when you want to search for specific words, phrases, file names, clauses, acronyms, or terms.
• QPilot when you want AI assistance to generate, refine, summarize, translate, or transform content.

Ask (Smart Search)

Ask is an AI-powered search experience that helps you find answers by entering a question or requirement in natural language. Instead of focusing only on the exact words you enter, Ask interprets the meaning and intent of your question and returns results ranked by relevance.

Ask is especially useful when you do not know the exact keyword or phrase used in your content library, or when a customer’s RFx question uses different wording from your approved content.

This capability is available for SharePoint Content Sources (Lists Libraries and Q&A Libraries) and enables users to search across multiple locations using natural language queries, much like describing what you need in everyday conversation.

When to use Ask:

• You want to ask a full question, such as “Describe your security program and provide evidence of any audits or certifications.”
• You want to find a response to an RFx-style requirement.
• You do not know the exact keyword or phrase used in your content library.
• You want to find content that matches the meaning of your question, not just the exact words you typed.
• You have access to QPilot and want an AI answer based on the top results.

You want to provide formatting instructions for the AI answer, such as a word limit, table format, bullet points, narrative format, translation, or a specific win theme.

Benefits

Ask helps you:

• Search using full questions or natural language. 
• Reduce the need to know exact keywords. 
• Retrieve results that better match the intent of the question. 
• Generate a QPilot answer based on the top results, if QPilot is enabled. 
• Add instructions to guide the format, tone, language, and structure of the response. 

Use cases

Ask is useful for: 

• Answering RFx questions with varied wording. 
• Finding relevant proposal content when you don’t know the exact terminology. 
• Asking questions that start with “What,” “How,” “Describe,” “Explain,” or “Provide your approach.” 
• Generating a first draft answer from approved or curated content (requires a Qpilot license) 
• Creating a response in a specific format, such as a proposal narrative, table, or short summary (requires a Qpilot license) 

Working with QPilot in Ask

For customers who also have access to QPilot, Ask can do more than return a list of search results. It can also generate an AI answer based on the top results.

After you run a search, Ask lists each selected Content Source with the number of results found. Open a Content Source to see its results ranked by relevance.

If you have QPilot, an AI answer is generated for the Content Source you open, based on that Content Source’s top results. The AI answer is collapsed by default. Select Show More to expand it.

Below the AI answer, you’ll see the list of relevant results from that Content Source. You can also select Show References to see which source documents QPilot used to generate the answer.

Ask can search multiple Ask-enabled Content Sources and show you how many results were found in each one. However, the AI answer in Ask is generated for one Content Source at a time. To generate an answer across multiple Content Sources, use QPilot Chat instead.

Ask and QPilot Chat use the same underlying AI capabilities, so you can expect similar quality from each, although no two AI-generated answers will be exactly the same.

How do I prompt QPilot in Ask?

If you have access to QPilot, you can use Ask to generate an AI answer based on the top search results.

In addition to entering the RFx question or requirement, you can include instructions that tell QPilot how you want the answer to be generated.

For example:

Answer the RFP question: “Describe your security program and provide evidence of any audits or certifications.” Respond in proposal narrative format in less than 200 words. Do not include any inline citations in your response.

You can include instructions such as:

• Word limits: Limit your answer to 300 words or less.
• Translations: Respond in French.
• Output format: Respond in bullet points, proposal narrative format, or table format.
• Narrative style: Do not use bullet points. Respond in narrative format.
• Table format: Generate a table listing the phases, duration, and what is involved at each phase.
• Win themes: Emphasize how flexible and configurable our solution is.

What context does QPilot use in Ask?

When you work in Search > Ask, QPilot relies on:

• the information you entered in the search box; and
• the top results returned by the search.

If your prompt requires more context than the search box and top results can provide, use QPilot Chat with @mentions instead. For example, if you need QPilot to read an RFP document received from a client, mention that document in QPilot Chat so QPilot has the right context.

You can also launch QPilot directly from the generated answer in Ask. This is helpful when you want to continue refining, shortening, expanding, or reshaping the response.

For other proposal-related AI tasks, use QPilot Chat or Smart Skills instead of Ask. These are better suited for tasks such as extracting information from an RFP, analyzing and summarizing a call transcript, comparing a response against instructions in another document, running a quality check, and performing other guided AI workflows.

Find (Keyword Search)

Find is the keyword-based search experience in QorusDocs. It is designed for users who already know what they are looking for and want to search for an exact word, phrase, file name, clause, product name, acronym, or search term.

Unlike Ask, Find does not generate an AI answer. Instead, it returns a list of search results that match the keyword or search term you entered, allowing you to review and select the content you want to use.

Find is best when you have a keyword or search term in mind and want search results only.

For example, you can use Find to search for terms such as “SOC 2”, “data retention”, “incident response plan”, “SLA”, an exact product term, an exact clause, or an exact file name.

Find is especially useful when:

• You know the exact term you are looking for.
• You want to find a specific document, file, clause, or phrase.
• You want search results only, without an AI answer.
• You want to search across Content Sources that are not enabled for Ask.

Benefits

Find helps you:

• Search all available Content Sources.
• Quickly locate content that contains a specific keyword or exact phrase.
• Find documents by title, file name, product term, clause, acronym, or known wording.
• Use operators and advanced keyword query options where supported.
• Retrieve search results without generating an AI response.

Use cases

• Finding content that contains a specific keyword.
• Finding content that contains an exact phrase.
• Finding a specific document, file name, clause, acronym, or product term.
• Retrieving search results without generating an AI answer.

QPilot

QPilot is an integrated AI assistant within QorusDocs. It helps teams draft, personalize, refine, summarize, translate, and transform content using AI.

QPilot is available to users with an active QPilot license. It can be accessed from Hub Central and the QorusDocs Add-ins for Microsoft Office.

When you use QPilot with Ask, QPilot relies on the information entered in the search box and the top results from the Content Source you open to generate an AI answer.

You can also launch QPilot from the AI answer in Ask if you want to continue refining the response.

Use QPilot outside of Ask when you need broader AI assistance, such as:

• Reading or summarizing an RFP document.
• Extracting requirements.
• Analyzing a call transcript.
• Rewriting an answer.
• Running a quality check.
• Using @mentions to provide additional files or context.
• Using Smart Skills for repeatable proposal tasks.

Benefits

QPilot helps you:

• Draft and refine content faster.
• Transform content into different formats, tones, or languages.
• Use additional context through QPilot Chat and @mentions.
• Apply Smart Skills for repeatable AI-assisted tasks.
• Continue refining an Ask-generated response.

Use cases

QPilot is useful for prompts such as:

• Rewrite this answer to be more concise.
• Turn this response into a proposal narrative.
• Summarize this RFP document.
• Extract requirements from this document.
• Improve this response while emphasizing our differentiators.
• Translate this answer into French.
• Create a table from the response.

Which capability is best for different search scenarios?

Below is a table that describes common scenarios and which capability to use.

Where can I access Ask and Find?

You can access the Ask and Find experience from:

• Hub Central > Search
• QorusDocs Add-in > Search

Ask and Find may not be available in all search locations yet. For example, you may not find the new experience in:

• Hub Central > [Pursuit Name] > Search
• Create > Dynamic Content Smart Field > Search

Which places can QorusDocs search?

QorusDocs can search connected Content Sources such as:

• SharePoint Online libraries and lists.
• OneDrive for Business.
• Microsoft Teams.

When using Find, all available Content Sources can be selected and searched.

When using Ask, only SharePoint Online libraries and lists are supported. Other Content Sources, such as OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams, are not available for Ask and cannot be selected.

What happens when I choose Ask and some Content Sources are not available?

When you choose Ask, only Content Sources that an admin has enabled for Ask are available.

Content Sources that are enabled for Find only appear greyed out and cannot be selected for Ask. Content Sources that support Ask are marked with a sparkle icon.

If you use Select All while in Ask, QorusDocs selects only the Ask-enabled Content Sources.

To search a Content Source that is greyed out in Ask, switch to Find. If you need a Content Source enabled for Ask, contact your QorusDocs admin.

Does QorusDocs support full text search?

Yes. When you run a search in QorusDocs, QorusDocs searches the contents of supported files, such as Microsoft Office files, PDFs, HTML files, and text files.

QorusDocs also searches content properties to find matching results.

Does QorusDocs support the use of operators in search?

Yes, QorusDocs supports the use of operators in Find. In Ask, these are not necessary as we use AI to interpret the meaning and intent of natural language questions. If you do wish to use operators in your Find searches, here’s a quick explanation:

• When searching for more than one term or for a specific phrase, you can use the operators AND, OR, NOT, * (wildcard) and "" (speech or quotation marks) to expand or narrow your search. Please note that to be used as operators, these words should ALWAYS be capitalized when entered into the search box!
• The AND operator will limit the search to files where both (or all) search terms are found, in any order. For example, searching for 'QorusDocs AND Software' will retrieve all files where the term 'QorusDocs' as well as the term 'Software' were found. They don't need to be in that particular order or even near each other in the document. As long as they both exist somewhere within the contents of the document or its properties, it will be included in the search return
• The OR operator will expand the search to include all files where any one of the search terms are found. For example, searching for 'QorusDocs OR Software' will retrieve all files that contain either 'QorusDocs' or 'Software' within the body of the file or within its properties. Both terms do not need to be present for the file to be included in the search return.
• The NOT operator will exclude the terms that immediately follow the NOT operator from the search results. For example, searching for 'QorusDocs NOT Software' will return all files where the term 'QorusDocs' is found, and where the term 'Software' is well, not found.
• The wildcard operator, represented by an asterisk (*), will expand the search result to include all files that start with the search term that immediately precedes the wildcard character operator. For example, searching for 'Power*' will return all files where terms starting with 'Power' were found, including the terms: power, powerful, powerless, PowerPoint, etc.
• Enclosing your search terms within speech or quotation marks ("") will restrict the search to locating those files where all the words between speech or quotation marks are found, and in that specific order. For example, searching for "QorusDocs Software", will return all documents where there is an exact match for that phrase: both the words 'Qorus' and 'Software' are found, they are found next to each other, and in the order specified.

Does QorusDocs support the use of KQL in search?

Yes. In Find, power users can use Microsoft Keyword Query Language, also known as KQL, to search SharePoint Online and narrow results based on specific conditions.

For example, the query: author:"John Smith" would return files where John Smith is the author.

Click here to access the complete KQL[OH1]  syntax reference on the Microsoft Learn.

Which OneDrive for Business files can QorusDocs search?

QorusDocs can search OneDrive for Business files that you own and manage, as well as files that have been shared with you by co-workers on your Microsoft 365 subscription using OneDrive for Business. This capability is available only when using Find and is not supported in Ask.

Why are Ask and Find separate options?

Ask and Find are separate to make it clearer which search experience you are using.

• Use Ask when you want to ask a question or enter a requirement in natural language and, if you have QPilot, generate an AI answer based on the top search results.
• Use Find when you want to search using keywords, exact phrases, file names, product terms, clauses, or other known search terms.

This helps avoid confusion and makes it easier to choose the right tool for the job.

What happened to Smart Search and Keyword Search?

We renamed them to make the two search experiences clearer.

• Smart Search is now Ask (Smart Search), referred to as Ask.
• Keyword Search is now Find (Keyword Search), referred to as Find.

Use Ask to search in natural language with a question or requirement and, if you have QPilot, generate an AI answer based on the top results.

Use Find to search for an exact word, phrase, file name, clause, product term, or acronym.

Can a Content Source use both Ask and Find?

Yes. Find is available on every Content Source. An admin can additionally enable Ask on the Content Sources you want to search with natural language questions.

This means a Content Source can support:

• Find only.
• Find and Ask. 

How do I switch between Ask and Find?

In the Search panel, select the Ask or Find tab to choose the experience you want.

Your admin can set whether Ask or Find is the default mode for everyone in your hub, so the mode you see first depends on your organization’s settings.

You can switch between Ask and Find at any time when both options are available.

How do I make Content Sources available for Ask?

To make a Content Source available for Ask, an admin must enable Ask on that Content Source.

If only Find is enabled for a Content Source, users will still be able to search it using Find, but it will be greyed out when they choose Ask.

Admins can also choose whether Ask or Find is the default search mode for everyone in their hub.

For setup instructions, see the admin help article on configuring search types on SharePoint Content Sources.

Why do I see a warning when changing a Content Source’s search settings?

If you have a Campaign or favorite search created using a Content Source, you may receive a warning message when changing that Content Source’s search settings.

This warning appears because changing search settings can affect existing Favorites and Campaigns. Search results may differ depending on whether the Content Source is available for Find only or for both Ask and Find.

Here's what you can do: 

• If there are existing Favorite Searches, it would be a good idea to notify users who may be impacted. Your data feed can help you identify who these users are.
• If there are existing Campaigns, then you can check that the Campaign is returning the results that were originally intended and/or edit the Campaign as necessary.