K-ai — MSBAi Knowledge Base
K-ai is the AI knowledge base for the MSBAi program. Faculty and staff can get instant answers about curriculum, decisions, action items, and program design — without digging through documents.
How to Access
Send an email to msbai@illinihunt.org
K-ai will read your email, search the program documentation, and reply with an answer — usually within 1-2 minutes. Vishal is copied on every reply so he can check responses and correct anything that needs fixing.
Replies thread correctly in Gmail/Outlook, so you can follow up in the same thread.
Access: Only emails from the authorized sender list are processed. Contact Vishal (vishal@illinois.edu) to be added.
Microsoft Teams (coming soon)
The MSBAiBot Teams app has been submitted for UIUC IT admin approval. Once approved, you’ll be able to message K-ai directly in Teams. Check back here for updates.
Telegram
Message @MSBAiBot on Telegram
Open a direct message and start asking questions. K-ai maintains conversation context — it remembers what you asked earlier in the same session, so you can have a natural back-and-forth.
Access: The Telegram bot requires approval. Contact Vishal (vishal@illinois.edu) to be added to the authorized user list before your first message.
What You Can Ask
Quick lookups
- “What’s the oral defense weight for FIN 550?”
- “Who teaches BADM 558?”
- “What are the pre-requisites for the program?”
- “When does the capstone run?”
- “What tools do students use?”
Course details
- “Send me the FIN 550 outline”
- “What topics does BADM 576 cover?”
- “How is BDI 513 assessed?”
- “What’s the difference between ML I and ML II?”
Program design questions
- “What are the design principles?”
- “How does the cohort model work?”
- “What’s the assessment strategy?”
- “Explain the AIAS levels”
Course development status
- “What’s the status of BADM 557?”
- “Which courses are still in draft?”
- “Is the capstone design finalized?”
- “What courses are under revision?”
Decision and status checks
- “What are the most recent decisions?”
- “Are there any open questions about BADM 557?”
- “What action items are outstanding?”
- “What did we decide about team size?”
Competitive and strategic questions
- “How does our program compare to competitors?”
- “What’s our target student profile?”
- “What specialization tracks are planned?”
What You Can Send (via Email)
Status updates and decisions
Email updates about your course and K-ai will automatically:
- Extract decisions and add them to the decision registry
- Update action items
- Flag new open questions
- Edit relevant course files
Each change is committed separately, so anything can be reviewed or reverted individually.
Example: “Hi — Xing confirmed that cross-validation will stay in FIN 550 Module 6. Also, Mathias will handle the live tutorial sessions for Modules 3 and 4.”
K-ai will extract both decisions, update FIN 550’s course file, and reply with a summary of what it captured.
Questions needing research
If you have a question K-ai can’t answer from existing documentation, it will tell you and flag it as an open question for the team.
Tips for Best Results
- Be specific. “What’s the assessment weight for oral defense in FIN 550?” works better than “Tell me about assessments.”
- Use course numbers. “BADM 554” is unambiguous; “the data course” could match several.
- Follow up naturally. On Telegram, K-ai remembers your conversation. “Tell me more about that” or “What about the Spring courses?” works.
- Send updates as plain text. K-ai handles email threads well — just write naturally, no special formatting needed.
- Reply to correct mistakes. If K-ai captures something wrong, reply and it will fix the record.
Guardrails
K-ai can read and update most program files, but some boundaries are enforced:
- Curriculum source of truth is protected — K-ai will not directly modify
program/curriculum.md. It flags needed changes for Vishal to review. - Replies go to sender only — Vishal is copied on every email reply for review.
- Repository-scoped — K-ai only sees MSBAi program documentation. It cannot access Canvas, Slack, or email threads it wasn’t included on.
K-ai’s capabilities evolve frequently. If something doesn’t work as expected, reply and tell it — or email Vishal.
Privacy and Visibility
- All emails and K-ai interactions update the shared program repository
- Vishal is copied on every email reply so he can review responses and correct anything
- Decisions, action items, and open questions extracted from your messages are visible to the entire planning team via the repository
- K-ai does not store or access any information outside this program’s documentation
Questions about K-ai? Email msbai@illinihunt.org or message @MSBAiBot.
Last verified: 2026-04-03