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. It get answers instantly, without digging through records yourself. You can also ask it to create new records 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 mid-April 2026.
How it works
AI Chat is available in two places: 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, so answers are fast and direct.
From the Notes section. Access chat from the Notes section without a specific note open. The AI can search across your entire notes library and CRM to find relevant information and answer broader questions.
The chat input supports multiple lines. Press Shift+Enter to add a line break without sending.
What you can ask
AI Chat works best for questions grounded in your notes and client data. Here are examples of what advisors are already using it for:
Summarizing notes. "Give me a quick summary of this call." "What did we discuss about their budget?"
Drafting 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 and style based on your preferences in Business Settings, so drafts sound like you, not like a robot.
Looking up client details. "What are the Smiths' dietary preferences?" "When is Sarah's birthday?" "What hotel are they staying at on day three?"
Searching contacts. "Find Phillip Turner's contact." "Do I have a contact with the last name Garcia?" The AI can search your contacts by name or email directly, you don't need to have mentioned them in a note first.
Pulling specific note details. "What are the voucher details for this client?" "What did I note about their preferences for cruises?"
Cross-referencing your records. "What have I learned about this client across recent calls?" "What should I focus on for their next trip?"
Time-based questions. "What trips do I have coming up in April?" "Which clients traveled in May last year?" "Any upcoming trips in the next two weeks?" The AI knows today's date and your time zone, so relative dates like "next Friday" or "this month" work as expected.
Creating trips. "Create a trip to Italy for the Hendersons in June." "Set up a new trip for the Smiths, status Booked." The AI will show you a confirmation card with the trip details — including status and travelers — and you click Create to save it or Reject to discard it. Nothing is saved without your approval.
Creating contacts. "Create a contact for John Miller, [email protected]." The AI prepares the contact and asks you to confirm before saving.
Adding activities to trips. "Add a dinner reservation on day 3 at 7pm." "Add a hotel stay to the Italy trip." The AI shows a confirmation card with the activity details — including which day, times, and description — and waits for your approval.
Tip: When the AI proposes multiple records at once, a summary bar appears with Create all and Reject all buttons so you can approve everything in one click. You can also click Edit on any card to refine your request before confirming.
The more detail you store in your notes and CRM, the more powerful these questions become. Some advisors log vouchers, cancellation credits, and special access details directly in their trip notes. They can then ask the chat for those details on demand instead of hunting for them manually.
What data the AI can access
The AI reads from your notes and CRM records. 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
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
Trips can be searched by date range (e.g., all trips in a given month)
Other context
Today's date and your time zone, so the AI can understand relative dates like "next week" or "this month"
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
Email threads
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 only in an email thread will not.
What it can't do
AI Chat can read your data, draft content, and create new records (with your confirmation). It cannot modify or delete existing records, send emails, or take actions in Tern without your explicit approval.
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:
Modifying or deleting an existing trip, contact, or activity
Sending an email or making a booking
General knowledge questions not tied to a specific client ("What's the best time to visit Japan?")
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 new 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.