ICIS Support Hub

How does Ask ICIS work?

When you type a question into Ask ICIS, the assistant will search ICIS news, reports and other content to find the most relevant market intelligence and return a response to that question.

For example, if you ask about the latest developments in the benzene market, Ask ICIS will find the latest Benzene Pricing & Insight report.

Ask ICIS uses a ‘Large Language Model’ to present an answer to your question drawn from ICIS content.

The Large Language Model itself is an AI that uses neural networks trained on vast quantities of text written by our team members. This training allows the Large Language Model to predict the next word in a sentence in a way that mimics a human. When writing the answer to your question, the Large Language Model is restricted to using only information it finds in ICIS content (i.e. the news, reports and forecasts you already know and trust).

What’s the difference between Ask ICIS and other common AI tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini etc.?

Ask ICIS is a new AI assistant for commodity market intelligence with enhanced trust and quality safeguards – and a tight integration with ICIS content. This means:

• Trust
• Exclusive content – Ask ICIS is the only AI assistant with access to the exclusive, timely information ICIS provides.
• Onward exploration – Ask ICIS is connected directly to ICIS content, allowing you to explore and to get deeper into the detail by accessing the citations shown next to its responses.

Does Ask ICIS store my questions?

The questions you ask Ask ICIS are considered “Contributed Data” and may be used by ICIS, for instance, to improve your customer experience. We may for example use this information to provide the user with a ‘chat history’ which they can revisit at another time. Ask ICIS is in beta and any data entered, or feedback given will be collected to improve the service to you, It is important to note that ICIS will not sell or distribute this data to third parties. Please do not enter personal data such as names or contact details into Ask ICIS.

Can Ask ICIS access my data?

Ask ICIS has no access to your data, other than the questions you send to it.

Is Ask ICIS free for us to use right now?

Yes! There is no charge for trying it out.

How long will the beta programme last?

We expect it to last for several months while we continue to gather feedback and develop the tool. We will keep everyone who participates involved and will be informing participants of any updates or changes to the programme.

I’m using Ask ICIS, can I share the link with my colleagues?

Yes! During the beta everyone with a Clarity account will be able to access Ask ICIS.

How do I sign up / can my colleague sign up to try Ask ICIS?

There is no need to sign up to try Ask ICIS. In the start of August access will be enabled to everyone (other than those belonging to companies who have opted-out).

Do I have to sign a new contract to access Ask ICIS?

By using Ask ICIS, your organisation has agreed to include the Ask ICIS terms in your organisation’s contract with ICIS.

I’m a new customer, can I get access to the beta?

The beta is not currently open to new customers, please reach out to your Account Manager to express your interest, and we will get in touch when Ask ICIS is available for you.

I’m having a problem accessing / using Ask ICIS

You can contact support@icis.com or via live chat.

How can users of Ask ICIS provide feedback?

There are three options:

1. Thumbs up and thumbs down buttons on the Ask ICIS responses within the tool
2. Use the ‘give feedback’ button in the bottom left corner of the Ask ICIS tool
3. Sign up to speak with the Research Team in a one-on-one session over Microsoft Teams.

I participated in the feedback sessions, how do I claim my reward?

Gift cards are processed automatically within 2-3 weeks of the interview.  If you haven’t received your gift card you can check on its status by contacting customer-research@icis.com

I’d like to discuss the possibilities of integrating tools like this directly into our analytical or operational systems.

We do not have an integration option at present for Ask ICIS, similar to our APIs and other data services, but this is an active area of development for us. Our product and user research teams are keen to talk to customers about mechanisms through which this could be explored. Please get in touch with customer-research@icis.com to arrange a discussion.

I have a question about the Ask ICIS answers I am being given. Can I discuss this with someone?

If you’d like a discussion on the quality or content within specific answers, or if the query is related to content in a specific report or a specific price assessment, then please contact support@icis.com and we will do our best to answer your queries, alternatively you can provide feedback through the steps shared under the ‘How can users of Ask ICIS provide feedback?’ question in this document.

What can Ask ICIS do?

Ask ICIS can support you with a range of market intelligence tasks:

• Answer questions about current market conditions
• Answer questions about past events and historical trends (after Jan 2023)
• Answer questions about market outlook
• Answer questions about supply and demand dynamics and trends
• Summarise ICIS content related to a particular market or trend
• Summarise ICIS content related to multiple commodities or regions
• Explain relationships between markets and trends
• Summarise a specific piece of ICIS content (e.g. a report)
• Display assessed ICIS prices for a particular commodity and region
• Translate specific ICIS content or translate any Ask ICIS response
• Draft text with specific formatting (e.g. bullet points, heading structure etc.)
• Draft text for a particular purpose (e.g. a memo, a presentation etc.)
• Position ICIS intelligence in the context of a particular business decision (e.g. negotiation strategy, buying decision)
• And much more! See some examples in the demo script provided here in this page

Can I ask it to give answers in a different language than just English?

Yes, you can! It’s a great feature – you can have Ask ICIS answer in your preferred language or ask it to translate an answer.

Does Ask ICIS hallucinate (as has been publicised for other Generative AI tools) or does it provide inaccurate information?

Large Language Models sometimes “hallucinate,” – generating information that doesn’t accurately reflect the source content. Ask ICIS has built-in hallucination prevention measures designed to minimise the chance that hallucination will occur. Even with these safeguards, no large language model is guaranteed to be free of hallucinations, so we always recommend you verify the accuracy of Ask ICIS responses with the original ICIS source, by using the citations provided.

What data does Ask ICIS have access to? Does it include all ICIS content e.g. LDT, S&DD, LNG Edge etc.?

The data currently in Ask ICIS includes:

• ICIS News Articles published since January 2023 (text only)
• Pricing & Insight Reports published since January 2023 (text and price assessment data) – all ICIS commodities
• Latest Price Forecast Commentary

It does not include:

• Forecast data or companion commentary published alongside our forecasts
• Live Disruption Tracker
• Supply & Demand Database
• LNG Edge
• Energy Forecast data
• Margin Analytics
• Customer Support information
• Marketing site (icis.com)
• Any content on ICIS not mentioned above

Some insight into outages and supply and demand trends can be drawn from news articles or text commentary in the price reports, but these may not reflect the latest data that can be found in the Live Disruption Tracker.