How AI Analyst Works
Access requirements. Two things have to be true. First, Scotch has to turn AI Analyst on for your business. This isn't a setting you can change yourself, so contact Scotch support. Second, each person who wants to use it needs the "AI Analyst" permission set to "Access" on their user profile (see "Giving Someone Access" below). Owners and admins aren't given access automatically, and new users always start without it. Two people at the same business can have different access.
You ask, it looks up your data. Type a question like "What were my total sales yesterday?" and AI Analyst looks up the answer in your own sales, inventory, tax, customer, and operations data, then explains it in plain language.
It asks what you mean when a question could go two ways. "Best seller" can mean by money or by units. "Returns" can mean money refunded or items brought back. "Compare these two" needs to know what to compare on. Rather than guess, AI Analyst asks one short question and holds back the numbers until you answer. Reply with just the missing piece, like a measure, a store, a date range, or a product, and it applies that to your original question.
It picks a date range if you don't. Ask "How are sales?" with no dates and AI Analyst chooses a recent period and tells you which one it used, for example "for the last 30 days."
It only ever sees your business. AI Analyst is locked to your account. It can't see other businesses' data, and it will decline if you ask how you compare to other businesses.
Answers cover every store on your account. If you don't name a store and more than one of your stores has activity, each store gets its own row or column instead of being blended into one total. Name a store in your question to narrow it down.
It can't make files. If you ask for a CSV, spreadsheet, or PDF, AI Analyst will tell you it can't. Instead, save the table as a report and use "Export CSV" on the report page. Answers without a table can't be exported.
It answers questions about your data, not general advice. It will explain what a term like "net sales" means, but it won't give industry benchmarks, buying advice, or general knowledge.
Answers are generated, so double-check big decisions. The chat page reminds you: "Answers are generated from your store's data — double-check anything important before acting on it."
Where to Access Each Feature
To… | Go to |
Ask a question or start a new chat | Analytics & reporting → AI Analyst |
Reopen a past conversation | Analytics & reporting → AI Analyst, then a chat under "Recent" |
Open or search your saved reports | Analytics & reporting → AI Analyst, then "Saved reports" |
Give someone access | Settings → Users → the user's name → "AI Analyst" row |
Get AI Analyst turned on for your business | Contact Scotch support |
Giving Someone Access
You'll need the "Settings" permission set to "Full access" to edit users. The "AI Analyst" row only appears once Scotch has turned AI Analyst on for your business.
Step 1
In Back Office, click "Settings" in the left-hand menu, then click "Users."
Step 2
Click the name of the person you want to give access to.
Step 3
Make sure "Back office access" is turned on. The permissions table only appears when it is.
Step 4
Under "All stores," find the "AI Analyst" row. Its description reads "Access to AI Analyst for all stores." Change the "Access" dropdown from "None" to "Access."
Step 5
Click "Save."
Note: Nobody gets AI Analyst automatically, including owners, admins, and newly added users. Repeat these steps for each person who should have it.
Asking Your First Question
Step 6
Click "Analytics & reporting" in the left-hand menu, then click "AI Analyst." It's the last item in that section.
Step 7
A new chat opens with the heading "Ask about your business" and three starter questions you can click instead of typing: "What were my total sales yesterday?", "Which products are running low?", and "How did last weekend compare to the one before?" Or type your own question into the box.
Next to the "Send" button, "Answers cover" shows how many of your stores the answers include.
Step 8
Press Enter or click "Send." To start a new line inside your question, press Shift + Enter.
Step 9
Watch the answer build. A status line starts with "Thinking…" and updates as AI Analyst works, for example "→ Seeing what data you have…," "→ Finding where to look…," "→ Checking the details…," "→ Crunching the numbers…," or "→ Building your table…" Not every question shows every step.
Step 10
To abandon a question partway through, click "Stop." Anything already written stays, and the answer is marked "Stopped." If AI Analyst is in the middle of looking something up, it can take a moment to stop.
While an answer is being written, the question box reads "Waiting for the current answer…" You can ask your next question as soon as it finishes.
If you leave the page while an answer is still being written, open that chat again from the "Recent" list to see it finish. The answer starts over from "Thinking…" and fills in from there.
Asking Follow-Up Questions
AI Analyst remembers the conversation, so you can refine an answer instead of asking the whole question again.
Step 11
Once you've asked a question, the line under the question box reads "Continuing your previous chat —"
Step 12
Type your follow-up, like "break that down by store" or "now show me last month," and press Enter.
Step 13
To start over with a clean slate, click "+ New chat" next to that line, or click "New question" at the top right of the page.
Saving a Table as a Report
When an answer includes a table, you can save that table as a report and run it again later, over any dates you choose.
Step 14
At the top right of the table, click "Save as report."
Step 15
In the "Save as report" window, edit the "Report name" if you want to. It starts as the table's title. Click "Save report."
Step 16
The button shows "Saving as report…" for a few moments while AI Analyst checks that the report can be run again. When it's done, it changes to "Saved as report."
If it shows "Couldn't save as report," click "Try again." Some tables can't be turned into reports.
Saved reports are private to you. Other people at your business have their own separate lists.
Running a Saved Report
Step 17
On the AI Analyst page, click a report card under "Saved reports," or click "Saved reports" in the "Recent" panel to see the full list.
Step 18
The report opens with the numbers from when you saved it, in a table you can sort and filter. Use "Filters" and "Columns" above the table to narrow down what you see.
Step 19
To get fresh numbers, choose a period from "Date range": "Last 30 days," "Last 7 days," "Month to date," "Last month," "Year to date," or "Custom." For "Custom," fill in "From" and "To." "Last 30 days" and "Last 7 days" end yesterday.
Not every report has a date range. If yours doesn't, "Run report" re-runs it as it was saved.
Step 20
Click "Run report." It reads "Running query…" while it works. The line under the report name updates to "Saved [date] · Last run [date]," and the dates covered appear above the table.
Step 21
To download the numbers, click "Export CSV" at the top right. The file includes every row and column, even ones hidden by your filters.
Step 22
To dig further, click "Ask a follow-up." This opens a new chat that uses the report as context, so you can ask for a narrower filter, a different grouping, or one more measure. Your saved report doesn't change. If you want to keep the new version, save its table as a new report.
To get back to the chat the report came from, click "Open original chat" under the report name.
Running a report doesn't involve AI. It re-runs the same lookup with your chosen dates, so the answer comes back in the same shape every time.
Finding and Managing Saved Reports
Step 23
Click "Saved reports" in the "Recent" panel, or "See all" under the report cards on the AI Analyst page. Use "Search saved reports" to find one by its name, question, or description. Reports are listed with the most recently run first.
Step 24
To rename a report, click the ⋮ menu on its row, choose "Rename," type the new name, and click "Save."
Step 25
To remove a report, click the ⋮ menu, choose "Delete," and confirm "Delete this report?" You can also rename or delete from the ⋮ "More actions" menu on the report page itself.
Managing Recent Chats
Your conversations are listed in the "Recent" panel on the right, newest first. Each one shows the chat's name and when it started. If you haven't renamed a chat, it shows your first question, shortened to fit, or "(empty chat)" if you never asked anything. Scroll down to load older chats. Use "Search chats" to find one by any word in its name, questions, or answers.
Step 26
Click a chat to reopen it and pick up where you left off.
Step 27
To rename a chat, click the ⋮ menu on its row, choose "Rename," type a new name, and click "Save."
Step 28
To remove a chat, click the ⋮ menu, choose "Delete," and confirm "Delete this chat?"
Deleting a chat doesn't delete reports you saved from it. To get more room on the page, click "Hide side panel."
When a Chat Gets Too Long
AI Analyst rereads the whole conversation every time you ask something, so a very long chat gets slower and less accurate.
The long-chat warning. An amber banner appears: "This chat is getting long — answers can start to drift as a chat grows. If you've got what you need, save it as a report and start fresh." Click "Copy chat" to copy the conversation, or "Start fresh" to open a new chat. Clicking ✕ hides the banner for that chat until you close the browser tab.
The hard stop. Once a chat is close to its limit, it won't take new questions. You'll see "This chat is too long to continue — copy anything you need, then start a new one." Your question stays in the box so you can copy it into a new chat.
Either way, save any tables you need as reports, then start a new chat. Nothing is lost, since old chats stay in "Recent."
Telling Us Whether an Answer Was Useful
Under every answer is "Was this helpful?" with a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down. You can vote once per answer.
Thumbs up shows "✓ Thanks — this helps us improve AI Analyst."
Thumbs down opens "What was wrong?" with four choices: "The numbers look wrong," "Didn't answer my question," "Couldn't do what I asked," and "Confusing answer." Pick one, add detail in "Tell us more (optional)…" if you want, and click "Send feedback."
Each answer also has "Copy answer," which copies the written part of the answer and shows "Answer copied." Tables aren't included. To get a table's numbers, save it as a report and use "Export CSV."
What It Looks Like in Back Office
The page is headed "AI Analyst," with a count of your stores and a "New question" button at the top. People without access don't see it in the menu, and going to its address directly shows a "page not found" error.
Your questions appear on the right with your name and the time.
Answers appear on the left, labeled "AI Analyst," with a colored bar down the left edge. They can include headings, bullets, and tables. Long tables show 10 rows at first. Click "Show all [number] rows" at the bottom of the table to see the rest.
Answers usually say where the numbers came from, along with the dates covered, for example "Based on your completed sales from June 1–7."
Answers never show technical details, like database tables, column names, or query code. If a merchant sees any of these, escalate it as a bug.
Out-of-scope questions get a short reply saying so, pointing back to what AI Analyst can help with.
Errors appear in a red banner just above the question box.
Error Messages and What They Mean
Message | What it means | What to do |
"The assistant is rate-limiting requests. Try again in a minute." | Too many requests are reaching the AI service at once. | Wait a minute and send again. |
"The assistant is temporarily unavailable. Try again in a moment." | The AI service is busy or down. | Wait and try again. |
"The data warehouse is temporarily unreachable. Try again in a minute." | The data service didn't respond. A very slow lookup can also show this. | Wait and try again. If it keeps happening, ask a narrower question. |
"Query took too long to complete. Try a more focused question." | The lookup ran past its time limit. | Narrow the question, for example to a shorter date range or one store. |
"This chat is too long to continue — copy anything you need, then start a new one." | The chat hit its length limit before the question was sent. | Start a new chat. Your question stays in the box. |
"This chat is too long for the assistant to continue. Start a new chat." | The chat hit its length limit while answering. | Start a new chat. |
"Still finishing the last question on this chat — give it a moment." | A question is already running in this chat, possibly from another browser tab. | Wait for that answer to finish. |
"This chat no longer exists — start a new one." | The chat was deleted, for example in another tab. | Start a new chat. Your question stays in the box. |
"This turn didn't finish. Please try again." | The answer stalled and never completed. | Send the question again. Escalate if it repeats. |
"The data warehouse rejected that query. The agent may have asked for something it isn't allowed to access." | The data service refused the lookup. | Rephrase the question. Escalate if a reasonable question keeps getting this. |
"These numbers couldn't be refreshed right now." | A saved report couldn't run. | Click "Run report" again. Escalate if it persists. |
Any message that mentions "#scotch-engineering," or "Something went wrong. Please try again or flag this in #scotch-engineering if it persists." | Something is wrong on Scotch's side. | Contact Scotch support. The merchant can't fix this, and retrying usually won't help. |
When picking dates on a saved report, you may also see "Enter a start date," "Enter an end date," or "The end date must be on or after the start date." Fill in both dates, with "To" on or after "From."
Troubleshooting
AI Analyst isn't in the menu: The person doesn't have the "AI Analyst" permission, or Scotch hasn't turned it on for the business. If the "AI Analyst" row is missing from the user's permissions (see Step 4), contact Scotch support to have it turned on. If the row is there, set it to "Access."
A new admin or owner can't see AI Analyst: Nobody gets access automatically. Give them the "AI Analyst" permission (see "Giving Someone Access").
A user can't see a colleague's chats or reports: That's expected. Chats and saved reports are private to the person who created them.
A number looks lower than expected, especially for today: Data loads in batches through the day and is usually caught up within about an hour. Check again later before treating it as wrong.
AI Analyst's number doesn't match a Back Office report: Ask which report and dates they're comparing, then escalate with both figures. Known causes of differences include tax rounding, how cost of goods is calculated, and when purchase orders were received.
Sales seem to be cut off at an odd hour: Daily totals use a business day that runs 3 AM to 3 AM, so late-night sales count toward the previous day. Questions about time of day use the actual clock time.
A margin looks close to 100%: AI Analyst flags this as missing cost information, which is common for categories like lottery, cigarettes, grocery, or deli. Add costs to those products for accurate margins.
AI Analyst won't answer a question that seems reasonable: It only answers from your own Scotch data. Comparisons with other businesses, industry benchmarks, buying advice, and general knowledge are out of scope by design.
"Save as report" isn't on an answer: You can only save tables. Answers without a table can't be saved as reports. Use "Copy answer" instead.
A table says "Showing the first X rows of Y": Very large results are cut off in chat. Ask a narrower question, or save the table as a report and click "Run report," since reports aren't limited the same way.
The answer is stuck on "Thinking…": The page checks on stuck answers by itself and usually recovers, but it can take up to about 2 minutes. If it's still stuck after that, reload the page. Escalate if it keeps happening.
A merchant disputes a number: AI Analyst records the exact lookup behind every answer, and Scotch staff can review it. Escalate with the business, the user, the question, and roughly when it was asked.