> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.helloclever.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Clever AI Tutorials
> Step-by-step walkthroughs of Clever AI in the Merchant Portal: what it reads, what you can ask it, how to connect your store, and how to act on the insights it surfaces.
Clever AI is the payment intelligence layer built into the [Merchant Portal](/portal/overview). You ask questions in plain language, and it answers from your live payment, customer, and store data. It also generates insights on its own, without you asking.
The difference from a reporting tool is timing. Analytics explain what already happened, after settlement. Clever AI reads what is happening now, across every transaction, and tells you what your next move should be while you can still influence the outcome. See [Platform Overview](/platform-overview/overview) for where it sits alongside the rest of the platform.
These tutorials cover the whole surface in the order you are likely to use it: understanding what Clever AI reads, opening it, asking your first question, connecting your store, then reading, acting on, and following up on an insight.
Clever AI is in Beta. Sanity-check figures before you act on them, and use the flag control described in [Rate an answer or flag a problem](#rate-an-answer-or-flag-a-problem) to report anything that looks wrong.
## How Clever AI works
Clever AI is purpose-built for payments. It is built on transaction behaviour, cashback mechanics, and Milestone Rewards performance, not on generic web data, which is why it can answer questions about your own settlement and loyalty figures that a general-purpose AI tool cannot.
Behind the single question box, Clever AI runs 12 specialised agents. Hello Clever publishes four of them by name:
* **Planner Agent**
* **Customer Intelligence Agent**
* **Payment Intelligence Agent**
* **Cashback Campaign Agent**
You never pick an agent. You ask one question, and Clever AI works out which agents to involve. That is why the same box can both explain a trend and hand you a pre-filled cashback campaign.
### What Clever AI reads
Historical and real-time transaction volume, customer purchase and repeat-visit patterns, cashback redemption activity, and channel performance.
Order, product, and customer data from a store you connect through a [data connector](#choose-which-data-clever-ai-reads). Read-only.
A report, invoice, or screenshot you attach to a question, analysed alongside your live data.
Web traffic, consumer activity, macroeconomic data, weather patterns, industry outlook, and other alternative data sources.
That last group is why an insight sometimes references something outside your own numbers, such as a demand spike that tracks a regional storm warning or a card decline rate that tracks a banking outage.
## Open Clever AI
Click the **Ask me anything…** bar at the top of any portal page, or press the keyboard shortcut shown next to it. The bar is available from every screen, so you never have to navigate away to ask something.
Select **Clever AI** under **Growth Tools** in the left sidebar. The badge on the item shows how many new insights are waiting for you.
When the page opens, the **Insights** panel on the right takes a moment to pull together your latest recommendations. You will see a short loading animation while it works.
Once loaded, you get a question box on the left under **Ask me about your payments, customers, and more**, and your Insights feed on the right.
## Ask a question
Enter any question about your payments, customers, or sales in the input field. There are no filters or dashboards to configure first.
If you are not sure what to ask, select one of the prompt chips below the input box, for example **What were my best sales days this month?**
Select the paperclip icon to attach a report, invoice, or screenshot. Clever AI analyses it alongside your live data.
Select the send arrow on the right of the input box. It turns dark once you have typed something.
Answers stream in live. While a response is generating, the send arrow becomes a square **stop** button: select it to cut the answer short.
Each answer shows how long it took to generate, above the **Beta** footer.
Clever AI answers in 21 languages. Ask in the language you work in, and the answer comes back in the same language.
### What you can ask
Anything Clever AI can reach in your live data is fair game. These examples show the range:
| Theme | Example questions |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Reconciliation | Why don't my revenue and my bank balance match? What was my net revenue per order last week? |
| Cash flow | Forecast my cash flow from paid orders. |
| Channels and methods | Break down my Shopify sales by payment method. Which payment method drives the most repeat purchases? |
| Customers | Which of my highest-value customers have gone quiet? How do first-time buyers behave in their first two weeks? |
| Early warnings | Are refunds surging anywhere? Which products are running low on stock? |
| Campaigns | How is my current cashback campaign performing against the one before it? |
To model a change rather than explain one, use the [Forecaster](/clever-ai/forecaster) instead. It projects the outcome of a pricing, incentive, or loyalty change against your live data before you commit budget to it.
## Choose which data Clever AI reads
By default Clever AI answers from the payment and customer data already in your Hello Clever account. Connect a store to widen that scope.
Connecting a store is what closes the gap between what sold and what settled. Shopify and WooCommerce tell you what sold. Hello Clever knows what actually landed in your bank. With both connected, Clever AI can reconcile the two and explain the difference, rather than answering from half the picture.
Select **+ Data connectors** next to the input box.
Under **Connected**, flip a source on to include it in your question, or off to exclude it. Sources are listed by the friendly name you gave them, for example a store name.
Pick a platform from the **Add new data connector** list. Shopify, WooCommerce, and API Connection are available now. Google Drive and Dropbox are marked **Coming soon**.
Setting up a store connector takes a few steps on the platform side. Follow the [Shopify connector](/clever-ai/shopify-connector) or [WooCommerce connector](/clever-ai/woocommerce-connector) guide, then come back here.
Each selected source appears as a chip above the input box. Select the **x** on a chip to remove that source before you ask.
After you connect a new store, Clever AI can take up to 24 hours to finish the initial data sync. Answers about that store will be incomplete until it does.
## Read and act on an insight
Everything in the **Insights** feed on the right was generated automatically. You did not have to ask for it. See [Actionable Insights](/clever-ai/actionable-insights) for the kinds of insights Clever AI produces and how it generates them.
Every insight follows the same shape: a signal it detected, the context that makes the signal matter, a recommended action, and a button that starts that action.
| Part | Example |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Signal | Transaction volume at your Sydney CBD location is 45% higher than a typical Monday afternoon. |
| Context | Local consumer activity signals suggest a high-intent segment of new customers is active in the area. |
| Recommended action | Activate a 5% flash cashback for the next 60 minutes to capture immediate conversions. |
| Action button | **Create time-based cashback campaign** |
The bold title is the takeaway, for example *Boost Sales: Reactivate 73 Dormant Customers, 85.90% Revenue at Risk*.
The paragraph underneath explains why Clever AI raised the insight and estimates the impact of acting on it.
Insights with a black button underneath are not just observations. Select the button, for example **+ Create Cashback Campaign**, to jump straight into setting up the recommended action with the relevant detail pre-filled. See [Cashback Campaigns](/portal/cashback-campaigns) for the rest of that flow.
Insights are time-sensitive by design. A churn signal or a demand spike is worth acting on in the window Clever AI flags it in, so work the feed regularly rather than saving it for a weekly review.
## Follow up on an insight or answer
You can dig deeper without retyping the context.
Every insight card has an **Ask** link underneath it.
The insight is quoted at the top of your question box, so Clever AI knows exactly what you are asking about. Type your follow-up below it, for example *how to execute*. Select the **x** on the quote to drop the context.
When an answer finishes, a **Keen to dig deeper?** section suggests natural next questions, for example **Show me the conversion rate by payment method**. Select one to continue the conversation.
Your questions and their answers are logged in the Insights panel with the assistant's name and a timestamp, so you can scroll back through them later.
## Manage chats and give feedback
### Chat panel controls
Three icons sit at the top left of the chat panel.
| Icon | Tooltip | What it does |
| ------- | ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Pencil | New chat | Opens a fresh conversation for a new topic. |
| Sparkle | Insights | Shows or collapses the Insights panel, useful when you want more room to read a long answer. |
| Clock | Chat history | Lists every past conversation, grouped by date, so you can reopen an earlier question. |
### Rate an answer or flag a problem
Select thumbs-up on an insight card or completed answer if it was useful, or thumbs-down if it is not relevant to your business right now. Clever AI adjusts what it surfaces next based on this.
If the numbers look wrong, select the flag icon on the insight card. This sends it to the Hello Clever team for review.
## Limitations
Clever AI answers and insights are generated from your own transaction, customer, and connected store data. They are recommendations, not guarantees, and should be combined with your own business judgement.
* Accounts with limited transaction history get fewer and less specific answers until more data has been captured.
* Clever AI reads only the sources toggled on for a question. If an answer looks short of data, check your **Data connectors** selection first.
* Connectors are read-only. Clever AI analyses a connected store, it never writes back to it.
* Clever AI recommends an action and pre-fills it. It does not launch campaigns for you, so nothing goes live until you confirm it.
Clever AI is built on anonymised transaction data, inside a platform certified to PCI DSS Level 1 and [SOC 2](/platform-overview/compliance/soc-2-compliant). See [AML/CTF and AI practices](/platform-overview/compliance/aml-ctf) for how Hello Clever handles this data, and [How we handle data](/platform-overview/compliance/how-handle-data) for the broader picture.
## Where to go next
* [Actionable Insights](/clever-ai/actionable-insights): the types of insights Clever AI surfaces and how it generates them
* [Forecaster](/clever-ai/forecaster): model a pricing, incentive, or loyalty change before you commit to it
* [Shopify connector](/clever-ai/shopify-connector) and [WooCommerce connector](/clever-ai/woocommerce-connector): connect a store as a data source
* [Cashback Campaigns](/portal/cashback-campaigns): build the campaign an insight recommends
* [Analytics](/portal/analytics) and [Customers](/portal/customers): the portal screens behind the figures Clever AI cites
## Related topics
- [Connect Your AI App to the Docs MCP Server](/developer-reference/docs-mcp-server.md)
- [Clever AI Forecaster](/clever-ai/forecaster.md)
- [Clever AI Actionable Insights](/clever-ai/actionable-insights.md)