Retrieval-Augmented Generation Explained for Business Leaders

Retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is the technique that lets an AI assistant answer questions using your company's actual documents instead of only its general training knowledge.

In practice, this means your support documentation, policy manuals or product specs are indexed, and relevant passages are retrieved and fed to the AI model alongside the user's question before it generates an answer. This dramatically reduces incorrect or fabricated responses.

For any business considering an AI assistant, RAG is usually the difference between a demo that looks impressive and a system your team can actually trust in production.