🔐 Who can use this feature?
Roles: Account Administrator only
Subscriptions: Any subscription package
Organization Context is a single free-text field in AI Coach Settings. What you write there sits behind every Coach conversation in your account. AI Coach draws on this context in every conversation, so its coaching reflects your language, your priorities, and how your people actually work.
When you're deciding what to include, it helps to know what the field is designed to do, and this article is designed to help with that. The role of Organization Context is to make AI Coach's responses feel aligned to your organization. It is not a replacement for your intranet or your policy library. AI Coach cannot look up material and quote it back to your people. The field sets the context AI Coach works within, rather than holding or storing your documents.
If you use other AI tools, the closest comparison is a global setting. Organization Context is limited to 5,000 characters, and whatever you save applies across your whole account, to every AI Coach conversation, and to every user.
Contents
Use these quick links to click through to the section you need help with more quickly:
What to add
Below are four example categories to work from when creating your Organization Context. They are not the only things you can add, so if something else about your organization would change how AI Coach coaches your people, feel free to include it. You do not need all four categories to see a difference, so start with whichever you can describe most easily.
Terminology
This helps AI Coach use the terms and language that make sense in your organization. AI Coach already has some context about your organization from your account, such as job titles, departments, and reporting lines. Consider what is missing from that picture: what you call employees and managers, your internal program and framework names, your meeting rituals, and the name of your employee assistance program. A full glossary will not fit, so give the name and add a short definition only where the name alone would not make sense.
Example:
We say "team member," not "employee." Managers are "people leaders."
Our 1-on-1s are "connects" and happen fortnightly.
Our leadership framework is Compass, with four levels: Contribute, Guide, Lead, Shape.
Our EAP is Sonder. Our learning platform is Grow.
Our business units are called practices. The main ones are Advisory, Tax, and Legal.
Why it helps: A manager asks how to prepare for their next 'connect', and AI Coach knows exactly what they mean. If someone is having a difficult time, AI Coach can point them to Sonder by name.
Ways of working
This helps AI Coach suggest next steps that are realistic for how your people actually work. You can include anything that changes whether a piece of advice is realistic in the first place.
Example:
We are hybrid, with most teams in the office Tuesday to Thursday.
About 40% of our workforce is store-based on rotating shifts, so scheduled 1-on-1s are often not practical for them.
Our clinical staff work 12-hour shifts across a 24-hour roster.
Managers typically have 8 to 15 direct reports.
We have grown from 200 to 900 people in three years, so many of our managers are managing for the first time.
Why it helps: Suggesting that a manager find 30 minutes with someone this week does not help a store manager covering a rotating roster. If AI Coach knows about the roster, it can suggest something that fits.
Strategy and current priorities
This helps AI Coach connect its advice to what your organization is working toward. A few words per focus area is enough detail, as longer paragraphs will use up a lot of your character limit.
Example:
Our 2026 priorities are customer retention, manager capability, and reducing time to hire.
We are 18 months into a shift from a regional structure to global functions. Complete for Sales and Engineering, still in progress for Marketing.
We acquired Northbrook in January 2026 and are still bringing two sets of processes together.
We are in a hiring freeze until at least July 2026.
Why it helps: A manager asking AI Coach for help with a team that feels stretched gets advice that takes the restructure into account.
Values
This helps AI Coach reflect what your organization cares about in the way it coaches. Statements about values are usually longer than the field allows. Give AI Coach the value names plus a short behavioral description of each, and tell it where the full version lives so it can direct people there.
Example:
Our values are Own It, Be Curious, Better Together, and Do the Right Thing.
Own It means naming a problem early rather than waiting until you have a solution.
Better Together means decisions get made with the people affected, not for them.
We give feedback within a couple of days of the moment, not at review time.
The full values guide is on the intranet under ‘Our Ways’.
Why it helps: Simple value names give AI Coach little to work with. A short description of the behavior gives it something to coach toward. "We give feedback within a couple of days of the moment" is more useful to AI Coach than "we value feedback."
What to leave out
Everything in Organization Context applies to your whole account, so it needs to be true of your organization broadly rather than of one person or one team. That rules out anything about a named individual's performance or circumstances, and anything connected to an open HR matter.
It is also worth leaving out:
Detail AI Coach can already see in your account, such as demographics, survey scores, or review content. Repeating it uses up characters you could spend elsewhere.
Policy, compliance, or employment law detail. AI Coach coaches people. It does not interpret policy or make legal or compliance determinations.
Anything out of date. AI Coach has no way of knowing that something has changed, so old context stays live until you update it. If you have entered time-specific context, be sure to set a reminder to review and update this when needed.
Suggested prompt for building Organization Context
To make planning a little easier, you can use your own internal AI tools to create your Organization Context from longer source material. To get you started, we’ve drafted a prompt that you are welcome to use, and have also included an 'end result' example of organization context that would work well with the feature.
✍️ A prompt to get you started
✍️ A prompt to get you started
You are helping me write a short piece of organizational context for an AI
coaching assistant used by everyone at my company. I will paste source material
below. Compress it into a single plain-text block.
CONSTRAINTS:
- Maximum 5000 characters including spaces. Report the final count
at the end, outside the block.
- Plain text only. No markdown, headings, bold, bullet symbols, or tables.
Short labeled lines and full sentences.
- Describe my organization. Do not write instructions telling the assistant
what to conclude or always recommend. Write "feedback here is usually given
in the moment" rather than "always tell managers to give feedback
immediately."
- Use my organization's own words for anything we have a name for.
- Date anything time-bound. Write "restructure announced March 2026," never
"recent restructure."
- Leave out anything about a named person's performance, circumstances, or
conduct. Naming people in their role, such as the CEO, is fine where it
helps.
- Leave out anything an HR system would already hold: headcount, demographics,
job titles, survey scores.
COVER these four categories, and anything else about my organization that would
change how a coach should talk to my people. If you run out of characters, keep
the categories where my organization differs most from a generic one.
1. Terminology. The names we use for things a coach would otherwise guess at.
Add a short definition only where the name alone would not make sense.
2. Ways of working. Anything that changes whether a piece of advice is
realistic for my people.
3. Current priorities and live context. This year's focus areas, a few words
each. Any significant change people are living through, dated.
4. Values. Value names plus one short line on what each looks like in practice,
rather than the full behavioral anchors.
STYLE:
- Concrete rather than abstract. "We give feedback within a couple of days of
the moment" beats "we value feedback."
- Describe what people actually do, not what we aspire to.
- Specific and short beats complete and vague.
- No preamble or closing summary inside the block.
OUTPUT:
1. The context block, ready to paste.
2. The character count.
3. Anything material you dropped for length, so I can decide whether to swap
something out.
4. Anything you left out on purpose under the constraints above.
SOURCE MATERIAL:
[paste values statements, strategy documents, competency frameworks, glossaries,
onboarding material, intranet pages]
✨ End result (example)
✨ End result (example)
About us:
We are a global organisation offering a mix of professional services, content and supporting technology.
Our core regions are EMEA (London), North America (San Francisco and New York) and APAC (Australia).
We have a hybrid workforce, most of whom are knowledge workers.
How we talk:
Manager and People Leader are used interchangeably; use either term for the same role.
Senior Leaders or Senior Leadership refers to the top two layers of leadership in the organisation.
Our core business units are called Departments, and each Department is made up of Teams.
Departments and Teams often span multiple regions and cities, so think Department first and geography second: refer to someone's Department or Team rather than their office location.
How we work:
Colleagues often collaborate across time zones rather than in person.
Delivery usually depends on several Departments working together rather than one team acting alone.
Collaboration within and across Teams and Departments is core to getting results and efficiency at scale.
Our culture is intentionally high-performance: people are expected to cycle in and out of their highest levels of performance rather than sustain peak output constantly.
What matters to us
This year's strategic focus areas are:
Becoming the global market leader through deeper penetration in existing regions.
Using our culture as a driver of industry-leading customer retention, tying cultural strengths directly to product, marketing and customer engagement.
Building and scaling a culture-first company, with wellbeing, inclusion and engagement at its core, including a liaison program connecting regional leaders across the US, EMEA and APAC.
Our values are:
Customer Focus: decisions and trade-offs get pressure-tested against what is best for the client, not just what's easiest internally.
Collaborative Teamwork: people default to looping in the right teammates early rather than solving things solo.
Ownership & Accountability: people follow through on commitments without needing to be chased, and take responsibility for outcomes even when the work crosses team lines.
Continuous Learning: mistakes and new information are treated as material to adjust from, not something to defend against.
Innovation & Improvement: people are expected to question existing ways of doing things rather than just execute them as-is.
What Coach should keep in mind
We are currently going through a restructure. Brook Lee was appointed CEO in March 2026 and has since made changes to the executive team.
We are rolling out AI tools across the workforce to lift productivity and performance, so people are adjusting to new ways of working with AI at the same time as organisational change.
Periods of lower intensity are normal and not automatically a concern.
Advice that assumes someone can succeed working in isolation will not fit how work actually gets done here.
Add, edit, or remove your Organization Context
Once you understand what Organization Context can be used for, and have planned your approach, it's time to get it added into your AI Coach settings.
From your Home page, select Settings, then click Coach.
In Coach Settings, click the Organization context tab.
In the context text box, write your context. You can add up to 5,000 characters, and a counter beneath the field shows how much you've used.
Select Save. Coach checks your Organization context before it goes live: the button shows Reviewing…, then Saved once it passes. Your changes reach every conversation within about a minute.
Tip: Write in plain sentences. Bold, headings, and bullet symbols will not carry over, so keep it to plain text. If you would like a starting point, the prompt at the end of this article will help you compress your existing material down to size.
To edit:
Open the More actions menu.
Select Edit, update the text, and select Save changes.
To remove: clear the field (or select Delete from More actions) and save.
Note: Organization context is reviewed before it goes live. It may be rejected if it instructs Coach how to behave in specific situations rather than describing your organization, includes personal information, or conflicts with Coach's safety and wellbeing guardrails.
FAQ
Why can't I see Organization context?
Why can't I see Organization context?
Organization context is available to account admins, and only for accounts included in the current rollout (available from early September). Please check that you're signed in as an admin. If you still can't see it, your account isn't part of the rollout yet.
How do I see how AI Coach will handle our context before I save it?
How do I see how AI Coach will handle our context before I save it?
Organization Context applies to all conversations as soon as it is saved; there are no draft or unpublished states. However, it is easy to update your context if you wish to make adjustments. We recommend trying it out in AI Coach as you save it, and you can make iterative improvements to get the best results.
Alternatively, you can test elements easily in AI Coach before you update your guidance. For example, if you use your own coaching, feedback, or leadership model, paste it into General AI Coach and ask how it would coach someone using it, or how it would handle the places where your model and Culture Amp's guidance differ.
Do employees see what's in the Organization context?
Do employees see what's in the Organization context?
No. The text you write isn't shown to employees. It's only reflected in the way Coach responds to them.
Can I set different Organization context for different teams or people?
Can I set different Organization context for different teams or people?
No. Organization context is a single organization-level setting that applies to everyone who uses Coach in your account.
How soon do changes to Organization Context take effect?
How soon do changes to Organization Context take effect?
Quickly, usually within about a minute of saving, across all conversations.
Why won't Coach repeat my Organization context word for word?
Why won't Coach repeat my Organization context word for word?
That's expected. Coach reflects your context in its own voice rather than reciting it, so the wording may differ from yours even though it follows what you asked.
What happens if my Organization context conflicts with Coach's own guidance?
What happens if my Organization context conflicts with Coach's own guidance?
Organization Context shapes how AI Coach communicates: its language, its tone, and its awareness of your organization. It works alongside AI Coach's people science expertise rather than in place of it.
How AI Coach handles a difference depends on how big the difference is. Where your approach and Culture Amp's guidance point the same way, AI Coach may simply use yours. Where your approach is sound but the person would also benefit from a wider view, AI Coach may lead with your organization's approach and offer its own perspective as an option. Where your approach could hold someone back, AI Coach may acknowledge your situation briefly and then reason from its own expertise.
If following your context to the letter would cause harm, AI Coach will not follow it, and will take a safer approach. For example, your context might note that people are expected to be reachable outside core hours during peak season. That is useful, and it stops AI Coach from suggesting things that do not fit how your business runs, but if someone says they are stretched and cannot switch off, AI Coach may talk about workload and recovery, and point them toward your employee assistance program where that helps, rather than coaching them to remain reachable.
Can I make AI Coach always recommend our approach over Culture Amp's?
Can I make AI Coach always recommend our approach over Culture Amp's?
Where your approach and Culture Amp's guidance point the same way, AI Coach follows yours, including your language and your process. Where they differ but yours is workable, AI Coach leads with yours.
What you cannot do is override AI Coach's guardrails. If your context points toward something that would harm someone's well-being, AI Coach will not follow it. Organization Context also does not change what AI Coach is. It shapes how AI Coach coaches, and it will not turn AI Coach into a decision-maker, an HR system, or a legal advisor.
Why isn't our Organization context saving?
Why isn't our Organization context saving?
Organization Context is checked before it goes live. If it does not pass the check, the field keeps your last saved version, and you can edit it and try again.
The first thing to look at is whether you are describing your organization or telling AI Coach what to do. Organization Context works as a description only. "Feedback here is usually given in the moment" will save. "Always tell managers to give feedback immediately" is an instruction, and instructions will often be rejected and not saved. Rewording the context as a description usually resolves any issue with it saving.
Should I include our competency or leadership framework?
Should I include our competency or leadership framework?
Add the name, the levels, and a short line on what each level means. That is enough for AI Coach to use your language and coach toward your definition of growth.
We don’t recommend trying to reproduce the whole framework itself. It’s likely that a competency matrix will not fit the 5000-character limit, and a compressed version might be too vague to be useful. Name it and provide a short overview, and say where your people can find the full version, so AI Coach can point them there.
Can we add individual names?
Can we add individual names?
Generally, we’d recommend not including names. Names date faster than anything else you can put in the field, and AI Coach has no way of knowing when someone has changed role or left.
Senior leaders can be worth including, because your people are likely to refer to them by name. If someone asks Coach for help replying to Priya's email about the restructure, it helps if AI Coach knows that Priya Raman is your CEO. If you do include names, add them to your reminder of things to review each quarter.
Leave out anything else about a named person. Their performance, their circumstances, and their conduct do not belong in a field that shapes every conversation across your account, and Coach is not in a position to comment on an individual. Keep it to who holds a role.
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