We Asked Our Own AI the Hard Questions (Here’s What Happened)

When we created our “Cheat Sheet” of questions to help associations pick the right AI vendor, I had a little moment of truth:

Okay, but how would Betty do with these questions?

So… I asked her. All of them.

Because if we’re going to hand you a list of tough questions to grill vendors with, we should be brave enough to answer them ourselves, right?

Here’s how it went: 

(Well only a few important ones... I didn't want to bore you with everything!) 

“Can your AI handle messy, unstructured content?”

Betty said yes!  She explained how she can work with both pristine knowledge libraries and the cobwebby corners of your shared drives. No judgment.

Here's her actual answer:
"Absolutely! One of my core strengths is making sense of unstructured or hard-to-access content. Associations often have a treasure trove of valuable information—think journals, webinars, conference proceedings, policy documents, and more—that isn’t always neatly organized or easy to find. I’m designed to act like a “super librarian” who has memorized your entire knowledge base, no matter how complex or scattered it might be.
Here’s how I handle this challenge:
- I use advanced natural language processing to understand and interpret questions in plain English, so members don’t need to know specific keywords or where content is stored.
- I search across all types of content simultaneously, whether it’s structured (like databases) or unstructured (like PDFs, recordings, or forum threads).
- I provide answers in a conversational, easy-to-digest format, and I can offer direct links to the original sources for those who want to dive deeper.
- Every interaction helps me learn and improve, so I get better at surfacing the right information over time."

"Do we need a tech team to set this up?"

Betty said no. One of our main goals is to make AI simple, not stressful. We handle the heavy lifting during setup so your team can focus on what they do best, not on becoming AI engineers overnight.

I can personally attest to this, being a former Betty client. I, nor no one on my team had any IT or technical background and not to brag, but we launched very fast! 

Here's her actual answer: 
"Not at all! You don’t need to be tech-savvy to implement me. My onboarding process is designed to be straightforward and supportive, regardless of your team’s technical background.
Here’s what you can expect:
- I guide you through each step, from strategy and planning, to gathering your content, training, testing, and finally launching.
- My team handles the technical heavy lifting, including integrating with your existing systems and making sure your knowledge is accessible and secure.
- You’ll have plenty of opportunities to provide feedback and make sure everything feels right before going live." 

"How customizable is your AI? Can we make it ours?"

Betty said yes! Your Betty is yours and fully customizable: name, logo, tone of voice, user experience... all of it. We believe your AI should feel like an extension of your brand, not just ours.

Here's her actual answer: 
"Absolutely! You can fully brand the assistant to match your association’s identity. Here’s how you can customize me:
- Name: You can rename me to anything you like—some organizations choose a historical figure relevant to their field, or even create an industry-specific acronym.
- Logo & Icon: You can add your association’s logo or create a unique logo just for your assistant. The chat icon can also be swapped out for one that fits your brand.
- Color Scheme: The color palette, including button colors in the widget, can be adjusted to align with your organization’s colors.
- Fonts & Typography: Choose fonts that reflect your brand’s personality, whether you want something modern, traditional, or anything in between.
- Greeting & Interaction Style: My greeting and the way I interact can be tailored to match your association’s tone—casual and friendly, or formal and professional.
- Language & Tone: I can adapt my language and tone to fit your audience, whether they’re students, professionals, or retirees. I can even speak any language widely available on the internet." 

"How do you protect client data?"

Betty is serious about security. Your data stays yours. We don’t use your information to train outside models, and we comply with major privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. If you ever leave (which we hope you don't), we also have clear policies for deleting your data completely.

Here's her actual answer: 
"Protecting client data is at the heart of how I operate. Here’s how I keep your association’s information safe and secure:
- Data Security and Privacy by Design:
By default, I don’t collect or store any data about individual users. This greatly reduces risks around personal data. If your association chooses to integrate with systems like an AMS for more personalized experiences, I still recommend avoiding personally identifying information whenever possible.
- Data Segregation and Access Control:
Each association’s knowledge base is kept completely separate—there’s no cross-contamination of information between organizations. Access is controlled by where the assistant is placed (for example, behind a member login for sensitive info), and each instance can be tailored to show only the content certain users should see.
- Privacy Compliance:
I’m designed with privacy regulations in mind, including GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. Since I don’t collect or store PII by default, privacy risks are minimized. Any content with sensitive data supplied by your association is excluded from my knowledge base.
- Data Retention and Deletion:
All content you provide remains your property. It’s only kept for the duration of our agreement, and when you’re done, your data is returned to you and deleted from my systems as per our contract.
- Encryption and Secure Infrastructure:
All data in transit is protected with SSL encryption. Data at rest is stored securely in Microsoft Azure SQL databases, with access limited to whitelisted IP addresses and protected by Microsoft’s security standards. Even the vector storage systems I use are designed so the data can’t be reverse-engineered into readable content.
- Authentication and Authorization:
I don’t handle user authentication directly. Instead, I rely on your association’s existing access controls. For extra security, SAML integration is available for secure user identification
- Intellectual Property Protection:
Your proprietary and paid content is protected by both technology and strict ethical guidelines. I never use your data to train other organizations’ assistants, and I only use third-party tools that guarantee your data won’t be used for other purposes.You can fully brand the assistant to match your association’s identity."

In short: we made a cheat sheet, then made sure we could pass the test.

If you're evaluating AI vendors, we hope this little experiment proves one thing:

The right partner should make it easy for you to ask the hard questions — and excited to hear the answers.