AI Chat for Notes and CRM
An overview of Tern's AI chat feature, including what you can ask, what data it can access, why you might see "I can't help with that," and how your data is protected.
AI Chat lets you ask questions about your clients, notes, and trips in plain language. Get answers instantly, without digging through records yourself. You can also ask it to create new records, update existing ones, send emails, and draft content in your voice.
This is a rapidly evolving feature. We're adding new capabilities regularly, and the behavior described here reflects the state of the feature as of early May 2026.
How it works
AI Chat is available in two places:
From the top nav. Open AI Chat from anywhere in Tern using the dedicated top-nav entry. Use this when you want to ask a broad question, search across your records, or take action without first opening a specific note or trip.
Inside a note. Open any note and use the chat panel to ask questions about that note, or about the contact or trip it's attached to. The AI has the full note in front of it plus access to your CRM data.
The chat input supports multiple lines. Press Shift+Enter to add a line break without sending.
While the assistant is thinking, you will see a loading indicator with a fun message and a helpful tip. Tips highlight things you can ask Tern AI to do — like reviewing your trip, searching contacts, drafting emails, or using the Notetaker. The messages rotate each time.
To switch between chats, click the back arrow in the chat title bar. This returns you to the chat home view where you can see your recent conversations and start a new one.
Your AI Chat stays open as you navigate between pages. You can browse trips, contacts, or other sections without losing your conversation. Opening a different panel (like an activity detail view) will replace the chat, but you can return to it from the chat home view.
AI Chat does not require a connected email or calendar. It is available to all advisors immediately after signing in, with no setup required - no Nylas connection, no calendar sync, and no notes needed to start.
The AI Notetaker - which automatically joins your video meetings and generates transcripts — is a separate feature that does require a connected calendar. See the AI Notetaker article for setup details.
What can I ask the AI chat assistant to do?
What you can ask
AI Chat works best for questions grounded in your notes and client data. Capabilities fall into a few groups:
Read and summarize
Summarize a note or call. "Give me a quick summary of this call." "What did we discuss about their budget?"
Look up client details. "What are the Smiths' dietary preferences?" "When is Sarah's birthday?"
Search contacts by name or email. "Find Phillip Turner's contact." "Do I have a contact with the last name Garcia?"
Pull specific note details. "What are the voucher details for this client?" "What did I note about their cruise preferences?"
Cross-reference records. "What have I learned about this client across recent calls?"
Time-based questions. "What trips do I have coming up in April?" "Any upcoming trips in the next two weeks?" The AI knows today's date and your time zone, so relative dates like "next Friday" work as expected.
Browse your trips. "Show me my trips." Returns up to 15 trips sorted by most recently updated.
Search form responses. "Show me form responses from [contact name]." Results include the form name, who submitted it, and a summary. Open the response in Tern for full details.
Draft content
Draft communications. "Draft a follow-up email based on this conversation." "Write a recap of this trip planning call." The AI writes in your personal voice based on your Business Settings preferences.
Create records
Create trips. "Create a trip to Italy for the Hendersons in June." Destination-only requests like "Create a trip to Cancun" work too, defaulting to a 7-day trip.
Create contacts. "Create a contact for John Miller, [email protected]."
Add activities. "Add a dinner reservation on day 3 at 7pm." The AI can search specific properties.
Add rooms to lodging and cruise activities (e.g., "Add a double room to the hotel on day 3 with a description of ocean-view king suite")
Add itinerary options. "Add a luxury option to my Italy trip." The AI inherits dates from the existing itinerary and lets you include an optional description.
Add cover photos. "Add a cover photo of the Eiffel Tower to this itinerary." The AI searches Unsplash and proposes the best match.
Update records
Update trips. "Rename my Paris trip to Paris 2026." "Set the status to Confirmed." "Add Jane Smith to the Italy trip." Supports name, status, and travelers.
Update contacts. "Change Sarah's email to [email protected]." Supports all standard contact fields. To clear a field, say "Remove Sarah's phone number."
Update itineraries. "Rename this itinerary to Luxury Option." "Change the itinerary dates to next month." When dates change, the AI proposes how to handle affected activities.
Update activities. "Update the dinner reservation on day 3 to start at 8pm." Supports changes to activity details including title, dates, times, and description.
Send and link emails
Send emails. "Send an email to Sarah about the Italy trip itinerary." The AI composes the subject, recipients, and body. Currently supports new messages only, not replies.
Link emails to trips. "Link this email to the Smith Italy trip." Note: This replaces all existing trip associations on that thread. To keep prior ones, include them in the same request.
Triage email threads. "Read this email thread and figure out what needs to happen." The AI identifies the type of email and proposes the right next step, like creating a task for a supplier amendment or adding activities for a new booking confirmation.
For email-triggered chats, Tern AI can draft a reply to the client. The draft appears as a preview card — you can review the proposed response, edit it, approve it to send, or discard it. Nothing is sent until you approve.
Search photos
"Find a photo of the Amalfi Coast." Returns options from Unsplash for you to choose from.
Search suppliers, ships, and ports
Find travel suppliers by name or type, search cruise ships and ports by name or region.
Ask clarifying questions
When the AI needs more information, it will ask you directly instead of guessing.
Apply cruise templates
Add a cruise itinerary template to a trip (you'll confirm before it's applied).
Contact addresses
Asking about a contact now includes their full mailing address.
The more detail you store in your notes and CRM, the more powerful these questions become. Advisors who log vouchers, cancellation credits, and special access details directly in their notes can pull them on demand instead of hunting manually.
Setting up your writing style
Go to Settings > Branding.
Find the Your writing style text box.
Describe your preferred tone, phrases you use, and things you'd never say. For example: "Warm but professional. Short paragraphs, no fluff. Never use 'curated,' 'bespoke,' or 'seamless.' Use emojis sparingly."
Save your changes.
This style guide applies whenever you explicitly ask the AI to write for you. It shapes the tone and vocabulary of AI-generated drafts — follow-up emails, call recaps, trip planning summaries, and other communications. You can update it at any time.
How write actions work
When you ask the assistant to make a change, it shows you a preview card before doing anything. Review the details, then choose:
Accept to confirm
Cancel to stop
This applies to all write actions: sending emails, creating or updating itineraries, updating activities, and linking trips to emails.
What data the AI can access
The AI reads from your notes, CRM records, and — during specific email workflows — email conversations. Here's a breakdown of what's available today.
From your notes
Full note content, title, and what the note is attached to (a contact or a trip)
From contact records
Name, email, phone, and address
Birthday and anniversary
Activity interests (e.g., snorkeling, hiking)
Food and drink preferences, including dietary restrictions and allergies
Travel preferences: flight seating, bulkhead preference, hotel room floor, elevator proximity, cruise cabin location and floor
Related contacts and their relationship type (e.g., spouse, child), including who's designated as an emergency contact
Up to 10 recent trips
From trip records
Trip name, status, and your configured trip statuses
Trip type — regular, group, or sub-trip — and the parent/child relationships between group trips and their sub-trips
Travelers on the trip, including their contact details
Itinerary options with dates and status
Day-by-day schedule with locations and activities
Individual activity details including type, dates, times, total cost, and full description
Publishing state — whether there are unpublished changes and where the published version lives
Trips can be searched by date range (e.g., all trips in a given month)
From form responses
Form name, responder, and a preview of response content
Searchable across all form responses you own or have access to
Filterable by trip or by contact
Results are scoped to forms you own or have access to — shared forms from other advisors are not included
From email conversations (in email workflows only)
Full email content (subject, participants, and body) when you ask the AI to triage a thread or link an email to a tripFull email content — subject, participants, and the full body of messages — when you ask the AI to triage a thread or link an email to a trip
Full email content — subject, participants, and the full body of messages — when you ask the AI to triage a thread or link an email to a trip
Email content is only read in the context of these specific workflows, not searched freely
Other context
Today's date and your time zone — the AI understands relative dates like "next week" or "this month," and all timestamps in chat are shown in your local time
Your writing style preferences from Business Settings, used when drafting content
What the AI can't access
Some data is intentionally outside the AI's reach today. If you ask a question and the answer seems incomplete, it may be because the data lives in one of these areas:
Passport and travel document information
Payment or billing details beyond the total cost of an activity
Commission data
File attachments or images on notes, contacts, or activities
Any data belonging to other advisors — the AI only sees your own records
Discarded or deleted trips
If something feels like it should be answerable but isn't, it's worth checking whether the relevant data is stored in a place the AI can reach. For example, details logged in a note will be accessible. Details stored somewhere the AI can't see won't be.
What it can't do
The AI cannot delete records, make actual bookings, or reply to existing email threads.
If you ask it to do something outside its scope, you'll see a message explaining what it can and can't do — and where to get help.
Common things that are outside its scope today:
Deleting any trip, contact, activity, or itinerary
It can't directly send replies to email threads — but it can draft a reply for you to review and approve
Making a booking
Questions about how Tern works as a product ("How do I connect my email?")
For questions about how to use Tern, the AI will point you to support resources. You can also use the Help menu at the top of the app.
How to make it smarter
AI Chat is only as powerful as your notes and CRM data. Advisors who invest in detailed notes get significantly more out of it.
A few practices that pay off:
Log call summaries, client preferences, and decisions in notes after every interaction. Hint: Use the Tern Note Taker.
Keep contact profiles updated with travel preferences, dietary needs, and relationship details
Set up your writing style preferences in Business Settings so drafted content sounds like you
Your data and privacy
AI Chat is designed to share as little data as necessary to answer your question. When you ask something, only the relevant information needed to respond is passed to the AI. Your data is not stored in the AI between sessions.
We're intentional about what gets shared. Sensitive fields — like passport information, payment details, and commission data — are never sent to the AI, regardless of what you ask.
Any data shared with the AI is processed under an enterprise agreement with strong data protection standards in place. Your data is never used to train third-party AI models.
A disclaimer at the top of the chat reminds you that AI can get things wrong — please double-check responses, especially when creating, updating, or sending records.
We apply the same standards to your client data that we apply to Tern's own proprietary data. If you have questions or concerns about how your data is handled, reach out to our support team through the Help menu.
Share your feedback
We're actively improving AI Chat based on advisor input. If something isn't connecting the way you'd expect, data seems like it should be accessible but isn't, or you want to request new capabilities, we want to know.