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.
🟢 Does chatting with Fin count toward my AI usage?
No. Getting help through the chat bubble in Tern — including conversations with Fin, our support assistant — does not count toward your monthly AI usage. AI chat itself does draw from your limit.
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 June 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.
From your dashboard. As of the June 2026 webinar, a chat composer is on your home dashboard by default. You can start a conversation the moment you log in, pick which record to talk about, and see any chats waiting on you. Go to Customize settings to turn it off if preferred.
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.
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.
AI Chat does not require a connected email or calendar. It is available to all advisors immediately after signing in, with no setup required.
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.
Entity attachments
When you open AI Chat from any page in Tern, the relevant entity is automatically attached to give the AI the right context from the start. If you're on a trip page, that trip is already in context. If you're on a task, both the task and its linked trip are attached automatically — no need to type "can you look at this trip?"
You can also manually attach entities using the plus button in the chat window. Add any combination of trips, contacts, notes, or tasks to a conversation before asking your question. This is useful when you want to cross-reference multiple records or start a conversation with specific context already loaded.
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:
You can also upload files to AI Chat: Learn more here
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?"
Pull a pre-trip research brief from multiple sources. "I'm working on a trip for the Johnson family. Can you analyze their past trips, the form they just submitted, and notes from our past calls and summarize what I should know when planning?"
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.
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 Branding Settings preferences.
Create records
Create trips. "Create a trip to Italy for the Hendersons in June."
Create contacts. "Create a contact for John Miller, [email protected]."
Create family contacts with shared addresses. "Get the email from [contact name] with their travelers and create contacts for all of them. They're all family so they should have the same address as [contact name]."
Create tasks. "Create a task to follow up on the Smith cruise deposit by Friday." Tasks can be named, assigned a due date, and linked to a trip or contact.
Add activities. "Add a dinner reservation on day 3 at 7pm."
Add rooms to lodging and cruise activities.
Add itinerary options. "Add a luxury option to my Italy trip."
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."
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."
Update trip statuses. "Set this trip to Booked." Can also be triggered automatically via workflow automations.
Search and manage tasks
Search tasks. "What tasks do I have open for the Smith trip?"
Update tasks. "Mark the deposit follow-up task as complete."
Send and link emails
Send emails. "Send an email to Sarah about the Italy trip itinerary." The AI composes the subject, recipients, and body.
Link emails to trips. "Link this email to the Smith Italy trip."
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.
Draft replies. For email-triggered chats, Tern AI can draft a reply to the client. The draft appears as a preview card — you review, edit, approve, or discard. 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.
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.
If you use other tools to generate responses often then try this prompt to extract your writing style.
What data the AI can access
The AI reads from your notes, CRM records, and — during specific email workflows — email conversations.
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
Food and drink preferences, including dietary restrictions and allergies
Travel preferences: flight seating, hotel room floor, cruise cabin location and floor
Related contacts and their relationship type, including emergency contacts
Up to 10 recent trips
From trip records
Trip name, status, and your configured trip statuses
Trip type and parent/child relationships between group trips and 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
Trips can be searched by date range
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
From email conversations (in email workflows only)
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
Your writing style preferences from Branding Settings
What the AI can't access
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
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.
What it can't do
The AI cannot delete records, make actual bookings, or reply to existing email threads.
Common things outside its scope today:
Deleting any trip, contact, activity, or itinerary
Directly sending replies to email threads (it can draft a reply for you to 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.
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.
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 Branding 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.
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. Your data is never used to train third-party AI models. See Your Data Isn't for Sale for the full picture.
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.
Share your feedback
We're actively improving AI Chat based on advisor input. If something isn't connecting the way you'd expect, or you want to request new capabilities, we want to know.