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AI Summary Fields
An AI Summary field generates a written summary of a record on demand. You write a prompt that tells ORCA what you want to know, and it pulls context from the record's fields, linked company, contacts, news, meetings, notes, and to-dos to produce a structured response.
The summary is generated when you click the refresh icon on the record. It is stored against the record and shown every time you open it, until you regenerate it.
Adding an AI Summary Field
In your template editor, add a new field and set its type to AI Summary.
Two settings appear:
Prompt template - the instruction you give the AI. This is the most important part. Be specific about what you want the summary to cover, what format it should take, and who will be reading it.
Include recent news - when checked, the AI pulls in any recent news items linked to the company on this record. Useful for deal pipelines where market context matters. If this record does not contain company information you can leave this unchecked.
Include meeting notes - when checked, the AI also reads through previous meeting notes linked to the company. Good for relationship summaries.
Writing a Good Prompt
The prompt is your brief to the AI. The more specific it is, the more useful the output.
A weak prompt:
Summarise this deal.
A stronger prompt:
You are a sell-side M&A advisor reviewing a live deal. Write a structured deal health summary covering: current status, positive momentum, key activities underway, critical path risks, and the most important next milestone. Write for a senior banker who needs a quick read before a client call.
Think about:
- Who is reading this. A deal team member needs different information than a senior partner doing a quick review.
- What they need to act on. A pre-call brief is different from a risk summary.
- What to include and what to leave out. If you only want risks flagged, say so.
ORCA adds formatting instructions automatically (markdown headings, plain bullet lists, professional tone). You do not need to specify these in your prompt.
What Context the AI Can See
When generating a summary, ORCA gives the AI access to:
- All field values on the record
- The linked company profile (name, sector, website)
- Linked contacts (name and job title)
- Recent communications logged against the company or contacts
- Notes linked to the record, company, or contacts
- Open to-dos linked to the record, company, or contacts
- Recent news (if the "Include recent news" option is on)
- Previous meeting notes (if the "Include meeting notes" option is on)
The AI does not have access to records in other sections, other companies, or any data outside the current record's linked objects.
Regenerating a Summary
On the record detail page, each AI Summary field shows a small refresh icon next to the content. Click it to generate a new summary.
The new summary replaces the old one in the UI and is saved to the record immediately.
If something goes wrong (a network error or an issue on the AI side), a short error message appears below the field. The previous summary is not overwritten in that case.
Things Worth Knowing
Summaries do not update automatically. They are generated on demand. If the underlying record data changes significantly, click the refresh icon to get a current summary.
You can have more than one AI Summary field per template. Each field has its own prompt, so you can show a deal health brief alongside a separate client relationship summary on the same record.
Summaries count towards your AI usage. Each regeneration makes an API call. There is no automatic background refreshing.