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Getting Started

Kaiya is the AI assistant for executive search teams. Think of Kaiya as a highly capable colleague who handles the time-consuming research, drafting and admin work so you can focus on clients and candidates.

Kaiya is especially useful for:

info

There are a few conventions used throughout the Kaiya help site. Have a quick look at How to use this help, it only takes two minutes.

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Your conversations with Kaiya are private. No information you share with Kaiya is used to train any AI model.

Let's get you set up.

Adding Kaiya to Teams or Slack​

Once your administrator has set up Kaiya in your Microsoft Teams workspace you can add Kaiya and start your first conversation:

  1. Click the + Apps button on the left of your Teams app.
  2. Click Built for your org. If Kaiya is not shown, type Kaiya in the Search apps and more box.
  3. Click Add in the Kaiya card.
  4. Click Add once more in the popup window.
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Once added, right-click on the Kaiya icon in the list of shortcuts on the left of your Teams workspace and click 📌 so Kaiya is always within reach.

You can also find a visual guide to adding Kaiya to Teams here.

Finding Kaiya once added​

Once Kaiya is added to Teams:

  1. Go to Chat: click the Chat tab on the left sidebar.
  2. Search for Kaiya: if Kaiya is not listed, type Kaiya in the search bar at the top.
  3. Select Kaiya: click Kaiya in the search results to open the chat window.

Getting around the Kaiya app​

The Kaiya app in Teams gives you a full workspace for your conversations:

  • Expand / collapse sidebar using the button at the top of the sidebar (shortcut: Escape).
  • Search your previous conversations by title or tag.
  • Start a new conversation from the + button at the top of the sidebar (shortcut: Ctrl + K, for "Control Kaiya").
  • Tag a conversation by clicking the tag icon on a conversation, so you can find related work quickly later.
  • Rename, retag or delete a conversation from the ... menu.
  • Click a starter prompt at the top of a new conversation to kick off common workflows.
  • Attach files using the + button next to the message box. Use Shift + Enter for a new line and Enter to send.
  • Get help from the Get help menu when you or Kaiya get stuck. This is also where you can replay the What's new tour.
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If Kaiya seems confused or you want a clean slate, start a new conversation with Ctrl + K. Kaiya does not remember previous conversations by default, except for anything you have explicitly asked Kaiya to remember in memory. See Personalising Kaiya for more on memory.

Starter prompts for common workflows​

When you open a new conversation, Kaiya offers a set of starter prompts. They are a fast way to get into the most common executive-search workflows:

  • Help me build... a candidate long list
  • I need to create... a target company list
  • I need to write... a candidate profile document
  • Conduct research on... an industry, company or individual
  • Produce a market map for an industry or segment
  • Produce meeting notes based on a meeting or interview recording

Click a starter prompt to get the skeleton of the request, then add your specifics.

For ready-to-paste prompt examples, see Example Prompts.

Choosing how hard Kaiya should think​

You can tell Kaiya how much effort to put into a task using the Effort selector next to the message box. The options are:

  • Auto (recommended for most work). Kaiya chooses between Balanced and Thinking for you.
  • Legacy. The previous Kaiya model. Use this if a task behaves oddly and you want a fallback to the prior behaviour.
  • Balanced. Everyday search, drafting and follow-up work.
  • Thinking. Use when a brief is ambiguous, the research needs more depth, or the quality bar is especially high.
  • Deep Thinking. Best when quality matters far more than speed and you want Kaiya to go deep.

See Choosing Kaiya's Effort Level for when to pick each option.

Seeing what Kaiya is doing​

While Kaiya works, an activity strip shows what Kaiya is researching, which sources it is reading, and which tools it is using. You can open the strip to follow the reasoning and the tool calls live, for example:

  1. Thinking about where the strongest candidates are likely to sit
  2. Searching the web
  3. Reading a web page
  4. Cross-checking public signals against likely search channels
  5. Searching LinkedIn
  6. Searching Invenias
  7. Preparing a clean shortlist and supporting output
  8. Preparing a Word document

See Understanding Kaiya's Activity Strip for more detail.

Long conversations​

If a conversation gets long, Kaiya will show a Long Conversation warning near the message box. When you see it you can either start a new conversation or set a higher effort level to keep quality high. To carry context forward, ask Kaiya to save a memory with a summary before you start a new conversation (see Personalising Kaiya).

What Kaiya can do​

Kaiya can:

  • 🔎 Search the web and read public web pages
  • 👥 Search LinkedIn and retrieve full LinkedIn profiles
  • 🔍 Search Invenias and retrieve full candidate profiles
  • 📝 Create branded Microsoft Word documents from your company's templates (or a default Kaiya template)
  • 📊 Create Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
  • 🎨 Create and edit custom images and simple infographics
  • 🎧 Understand audio and video recordings (audio only) up to roughly four hours, including meetings, interviews and voice notes
  • 👀 Read images such as handwriting, screenshots and charts
  • 🌐 Translate and converse in most common languages
  • 🧠 Remember your preferences and on-demand notes across conversations
  • ➕ Combine any of the above in a single task
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You can always ask Kaiya for a list of what is currently available to you:

Give me a list of the tools you have available to you

If something is missing that you would like enabled, drop us a line at hello@kaiya.ai.

See Reference guide to Kaiya's Tools for more detail on each capability.

What Kaiya cannot do​

  • Kaiya cannot send emails, LinkedIn messages or LinkedIn posts. Kaiya will draft them for you.
  • Kaiya cannot access your mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint or hard drive. Attach or paste the relevant content into the chat.
  • Kaiya cannot use paywalled or login-only sites such as ZoomInfo, Pitchbook, Crunchbase or D&B. Kaiya will use public sources instead.
  • Kaiya cannot update CRM systems such as Invenias. Kaiya can search for candidates and retrieve all information attached to a candidate.
  • Kaiya cannot search Invenias for companies, assignments or programmes. Invenias search is for candidates only, although candidate records include information about the companies, assignments and programmes they are associated with.
  • Kaiya cannot analyse aggregate data in Invenias such as counting candidates or breakdowns by characteristic.
  • Kaiya cannot see images or formatting inside attached documents. If layout or an embedded image matters, send a screenshot.
  • Kaiya does not remember previous conversations unless you have explicitly asked it to store a memory.

Kaiya's limitations​

AI is developing fast and Kaiya is improving with it, but there are still a few rough edges:

Always check the sources Kaiya provides. Kaiya is trained to ground claims in real sources and cite them. Treat the sources like any other research source, especially for client-facing material.

Break complex work into steps. Kaiya is much more effective with focused requests than with a single long list of tasks. If you have a lot to do, ask Kaiya for a plan first and then work through the plan a step at a time.

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As a rule of thumb, give Kaiya no more work in a single message than a human would complete in about 1 hour.

A reasonable ask:

Give me a plan to find the current job title, location and LinkedIn profile for these 20 people and compare them with this fit to profile doc.

A less reasonable ask:

Give me the title, location, LinkedIn profile, career history and an email draft for these 400 people

Break the bigger ask into chunks.

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When Kaiya does something particularly well or misses the mark, let us know. Just tell Kaiya:

Kaiya, record feedback, you did an excellent job finding those candidates

Your feedback shapes Kaiya's development.

Need more help?​

We are here for you. Email hello@kaiya.ai - we pride ourselves on excellent support.