> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.liftai.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Ask the Lift AI assistant a question

> How to open the Lift AI assistant from the top bar to ask about your portfolio, tickets, or how to use LiftAI.

The **Lift AI assistant** answers questions about your portfolio in plain language — tickets, callbacks, invoices, properties, and compliance — and pulls the data together for you. Use this article to open it and ask your first question.

<Note>
  The Lift AI assistant is a **consultant** feature and is rolled out gradually. If you don't see **Ask Lift AI** in the top bar, it isn't enabled for your account yet. See [Get help](/getting-started/get-help).
</Note>

## Open the assistant

<Steps>
  <Step title="Find Ask Lift AI">
    In the top bar, select **Ask Lift AI**. The assistant opens in a panel docked to the bottom-right of the screen.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Type your question">
    Enter your question in the message box at the bottom of the panel, then press **Enter** to send it. Use **Shift + Enter** for a line break.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read the reply">
    The assistant thinks, then streams its answer back. You can keep the conversation going by asking follow-up questions.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Not sure where to start? The welcome screen shows starter questions like "What certificates are expiring in the next 90 days?" and "Which elevators missed maintenance last month?" Select one to drop it into the message box.
</Tip>

## Manage the conversation

* **Expand the panel** with the expand control to give the conversation more room, or **dock** it back to the corner.
* **Start a new chat** with the **+** control in the panel header.
* **Reopen a past conversation** from the history control in the panel header.
* **Stop a reply** in progress with the stop control next to the message box.
* **Close the panel** with the **X**; your conversations are kept so you can return to them.

Press **Esc** to dock an expanded panel, or to close a docked one.

## Next steps

* [What the Lift AI assistant can and can't do](/assistant/assistant-capabilities) for the kinds of questions it handles and its limits.
* [Maintenance performance](/tickets/maintenance-performance) for how maintenance data is tracked.