Pillar 6 of 6

AI Assistant

A citation-disciplined commercial roofing research assistant. It answers only from CRI’s approved knowledge base and published research — and says so plainly when it doesn’t know.

In development The AI Assistant launches after the cornerstone knowledge base is complete, because the assistant only answers from approved CRI sources. Until then, use Search or browse by Situation.

The rules it will follow

  • Approved sources only. Answers draw exclusively from CRI’s published knowledge base, datasets, and methodology reports.
  • Citations on every answer. Each response links to the CRI pages it relied on, so you can verify everything.
  • Honest about gaps. If CRI hasn’t published on a topic, the assistant says so instead of guessing.
  • No sales function. The assistant educates. It does not steer users toward any service or vendor.
  • Uncertainty is stated. Where the evidence is mixed or condition-dependent, the answer says so explicitly.

Why we’re building it this way

General-purpose AI tools will confidently improvise answers about roof systems, warranties, and insurance claims. In this domain, improvised answers cost owners real money. A trustworthy assistant needs a governed corpus first — which is why the knowledge base, Editorial Standards, and Methodology come before the assistant itself.