Intelligent Access: A Custom AI Chatbot for Document Management & User Experience

An offshore drilling contractor was relying on a content management system (CMS)  that had been heavily customized over the past decade to house operation-critical documents, including safety documents, company directives, and policies, key resources that drive operational compliance, efficiency, and discipline. Following a yearlong initiative of global workshops and feedback sessions across the organization, it became clear that the CMS had become a significant pain point. Employees consistently expressed frustration over how difficult it was to navigate, how much time it took to locate critical information, and how the system added unnecessary administrative burden, particularly for operational crews in high-stakes environments. These issues not only impacted efficiency but also raised serious concerns around safety and the overall user experience, especially for new team members trying to get up to speed.

Coming out of the workshops, leadership made a clear commitment to the workforce: to act on the feedback and deliver meaningful improvements within a reasonable timeframe. However, fulfilling that promise proved to be complex. The level of customization built into the CMS made any major overhaul both costly and time-consuming, with an estimated timeline of two to three years.

At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging chatbot technologies were gaining traction within the ISIT space. Employees and stakeholders alike began asking how the organization planned to leverage these innovations. Expectations were rising, but the reality remained the same. There was neither the time nor the budget for a full system replacement. The organization faced a pressing challenge: finding a way to meet the needs of its people, restore trust in the system, and take a meaningful step toward modernization without launching a full-scale implementation.

To address the client’s CMS challenges, MRE developed a custom AI-powered chatbot using OpenAI technology. The chatbot allows users to ask natural language questions and receive fast, accurate answers sourced directly from the existing documents. Responses are concise and contextually relevant, with built-in reference links that take users directly to the original content within the document management system. This ensures full traceability and transparency, while significantly reducing the time and effort needed to locate critical information. Plus, the chatbot was designed to extract and prioritize information from the client’s document database on a daily basis, ensuring that responses reflect the most current and relevant content available.

The development and deployment of the chatbot was designed to stay within budget and be completed within a six-month timeframe. By utilizing OpenAI technology and cloud-based architecture, the solution avoids the need for expensive infrastructure investments. This approach ensures the project delivers value quickly while remaining within both financial and temporal constraints, providing significant improvements to information access and operational efficiency without requiring a full CMS overhaul. Additionally, the flexibility of the chatbot enables the organization to pivot their CMS direction in the future if needed. Should the organization decide to evolve or replace its CMS at a later date, the chatbot can continue to operate seamlessly, integrating with new systems and retaining its core functionality. This ensures long-term adaptability, allowing the organization to modernize its CMS without losing the valuable tool they’ve integrated into their daily operations.