Inventorying Sources: Which Documents Belong in an AI Knowledge Base, and Which Version to Trust
Importing the whole shared drive is the most common way to start an AI knowledge base, and the most common mistake. When old and current versions are retrieved together, the model blends them: in one study, even with the current information retrieved, adding a single outdated passage cut the overall score by more than 24%. First build a source inventory recording each source's owner, update frequency, access restrictions and handling decision; collect only one workflow's well-governed sources in the first batch; and keep only the current version of each document, labeling any old version you must keep with its version and expiry date. After importing, check the file counts, because some connectors import nothing and report no error when they lack permissions.