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Ascend agents come with built-in private capital knowledge, but they don’t know how your firm works: what a field means, the format a value takes, or what your partners want stressed before a meeting. Two settings let you add that context:
  • Meeting Prep instructions — free text on the Meeting Prep Agent card that shapes every brief, for everyone in your organization.
  • Field descriptions — a short description on each custom field in New Lists. The Data Update agent reads it when it suggests values, and teammates see it too.
Neither changes how you stay in control. No instruction can make an agent write to your CRM on its own: the Data Update agent still waits for you to review and apply every suggestion. Available on Scale, Advanced, and Enterprise.

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Meeting Prep instructions

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Who can set them

People with the Manage Affinity AI feature access permission can add, edit, and clear the instructions. Admins and Enterprise Admins have it by default (see Manage AI settings). Everyone else in your organization can read the instructions but can’t change them.

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Add or change the instructions

  1. Open Ascend in the left navigation and go to the Agents tab. (You can also start from Settings → Automations & AI → Affinity AI: on the Ascend card, next to Agent instructions, click Manage.)
  2. On the Meeting Prep Agent card, find Agent Instructions and click Edit.
  3. Write your instructions, up to 2,000 characters.
  4. Click Save. Cancel discards your changes.
The instructions apply to every brief generated after you save: the automatic overnight briefs and briefs anyone generates on demand, for every user in your organization. To remove them, click Edit, clear the text, and click Save.

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What everyone else sees

Members see your instructions on the Meeting Prep Agent card, with View more to read the full text. That way nobody’s briefs change without the reason being visible. If no instructions are set, the card shows nothing.

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Write instructions that work

Instructions work best for style and emphasis: what to include or leave out, how to lay it out, and what to stress. For example:
  • “Include only a high-level summary of the meeting purpose and key questions to ask.”
  • “Do not include a recent news section.”
  • “Use bullet points, and keep each section short.”
  • “For investor meetings, lead with fundraising history and current investors.”
Instructions guide how a brief is written. An instruction that reshapes the whole brief — a fixed length, for example — may not be followed. If a brief ignores an instruction, try rewording it as something to include, leave out, or emphasize.
There is one set of instructions for the whole organization. You can’t set different instructions per user.

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Field descriptions for the Data Update agent

When the Data Update agent reads a meeting note, it also reads the description of each field it considers. Use the description to say what the field means and the format it expects — units, length, or conventions your team follows. For example:
  • Round Size — “Round size in millions of USD. Enter 14, not 14000000.”
  • Scouting Description — “A one-line tagline, under 15 words.”
  • Deal Lead — “The partner leading the deal, not the associate.”
Suggestions follow the description, or the agent leaves them out. The description also shows to teammates when they hover over the column header, so it explains the field to new team members too.

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Add or edit a description

Field descriptions are available in New Lists only.
  1. Open a list in New Lists.
  2. Click the column header and choose Edit field. (You can also add a description when you create a new field.)
  3. In the description box under the field name — “Add a field description for Affinity agents to use.” — write up to 255 characters.
  4. Click Save (or Create field for a new field).
Anyone who can edit a field’s settings can add or change its description. Descriptions are for custom fields; enriched and system fields don’t take one. See How to create and delete fields in New Lists for the rest of the field form.
A description explains a field — it doesn’t stop the agent from suggesting that field. If a suggestion shouldn’t be applied, leave it unchecked when you click Apply Updates and it’s declined. See Review & approve an agent’s suggestions.

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Common questions

  • Can instructions let an agent change our CRM without approval? No. Instructions shape what an agent produces, not what it’s allowed to do. Every Data Update suggestion still needs a person to apply it.
  • Does the Data Update agent have an instructions box? No. Its context comes from field descriptions.
  • Can each user set their own Meeting Prep instructions? No. There’s one set for the organization, written by people with the Manage Affinity AI feature access permission.
  • Who can see our instructions and descriptions? Everyone in your organization. Meeting Prep instructions show on the Meeting Prep Agent card; a field’s description shows when you hover over its column header.
  • Can I add a description in Classic Lists? No. The description box is only in New Lists.
  • I changed the instructions, but a brief I already had didn’t change. Briefs that were already generated aren’t rewritten. Briefs generated after you save use the new instructions.
Affinity AI can make mistakes. Review each suggestion before approving it.