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Let’s understand what a knowledge management system is. Knowledge management system (KMS) can be seen as an entity like an IT system in an organization that implements knowledge management. It will deal with organising, storing and retrieving a lot of knowledge relevant to the various processes within the organization. It ensures that the necessary information is available on demand and can be used for process guidance. Well, what is a knowledge base then? Knowledge base (KB) can be defined as a centralized repository of information that relate to policies and procedures. It also helps you create, store and share documents across your company. It is made available to the employees for easy access in case any guidance is needed. Now what are the common reason for a KB becomes unusable in a KMS? Some of the common reason that contribute to KB becoming unusable are listed below. 1) Poor user experience 2) Incomplete knowledge base 3) Complex knowledge base 4) Low user adoption 5) Easy access 6) Poor structure 7) Outdated content 😎 Security issues 9) Scalability issues How do we ensure that these reasons are mitigated? What are some of the strategies that can be employed to improve the usability of the knowledge base are listed below., 1) Structuring a knowledge base – Using a proper hierarchy, tagging and linking content 2) Optimizing a knowledge base – Employing proper search engines 3) Knowing your audience – Understanding user groups and their search patterns 4) Promoting the knowledge base – Ensuring that the KB is promoted to resolve FAQ’s and Complex searches 5) Collecting feedback – User feedback on the KB usability and its effectiveness 6) Scalability ready – Easy Integration with advanced technologies 7) Easy Transition – Version control adaptations 😎 Broadcasting Updates – Ensure all users are notified about updates through various channels (Chat, Email, etc.,) We can ensure that the usability and effectiveness of a KB can be drastically improved if the above are adopted. With the future of technology focussed on Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge bases can be used extensively with AI to increase reachability, robustness, accuracy and effectiveness. In terms of Organizing the KB, AI can help in streamlining content. AI can use NLP to understand and interpret the user’s intent behind the queries asked. AI can help in organizing information effectively by employing Hierarchical structuring, identifying metadata and tagging and help in content linking. In terms of efficient retrieval of information, AI can help in optimization in searches. This enhances performance and improves user experience. AI also offers multilingual support. AI can be used to take the existing SOP’s into near accurate decision trees by analysing data, identifying patterns and generating new content. AI enhances data security. Bringing in AI allows us to incorporate Analytics of the highest order giving us insights on user interactions, common queries (FAQ’s) and thereby system performance. Over time this will lead to better and accurate answers. As a closing statement, while a knowledge base as an entity is susceptible to failure, Artificial Intelligence can bring in higher robustness, greater effectiveness and a level of security to ensure that the Knowledge base remains usable and relevant across time.