Bemba AI Usage Guide

This guide shows how to ask Bemba questions, how to read its answers and what to do when something goes wrong.

Opening the assistant

1. Click the floating button at the bottom right of any page, or click PCH GIS Assistant on the detailed map.
2. Type your question in the input box, or click a suggestion.
3. Press Enter or the send button.

The assistant header

Control	Effect
Language	Chooses the language of the answers: French, English, Portuguese or Kriol.
Voice	Turns reading answers aloud on or off.
History	Reopens a previous conversation.
New conversation	Starts from scratch. The previous conversation stays in the history.
Delete	Removes a conversation from the history.
Minimise / Close	Hides the window. The current conversation is not lost.

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Example questions by area

Ask simple questions, one at a time. Name the region, sector or programme when you know it.

Household statistics

Question	What Bemba returns
"How many households are registered?"	The total within your scope.
"How many households per region?"	A table, region by region.
"Households in Farim sector by locality"	The breakdown by locality.
"Households by poverty category in Oio"	Extreme, severe, moderate, vulnerable, non-poor.
"How many validated households in Gabú?"	The total for that status.
"Households registered per month in 2026"	A monthly series.
"Households of the PRSSB project by area"	Urban / rural.

Beneficiaries

Question	What Bemba returns
"How many active beneficiaries?"	The total by status.
"Beneficiaries by programme"	The number per programme.
"Beneficiaries enrolled per month"	A monthly series.
"Beneficiaries of Bafatá by region"	The requested breakdown.

Payments

Question	What Bemba returns
"How many payments executed this month?"	The number and the amount.
"Payments by status"	Executed, failed, pending.
"Payments by operator"	The breakdown by payment operator.
"Amount paid per cycle for programme X"	A table per cycle.
"Payments from January to March 2026 by region"	The breakdown over the period.

Complaints

Question	What Bemba returns
"How many open complaints?"	The number for that status.
"Complaints by category"	The breakdown by category.
"Complaints by priority in Oio region"	The requested breakdown.
"How many sensitive complaints?"	The number, if you have access.
"Complaints received per month this year"	A monthly series.

Search and household record

Question	What Bemba returns
"Search for household PCH-OIO-000123"	The matching household, with a link to its record.
"Find beneficiary Maria Silva"	The matches found.
"Is there a complaint with reference PLT-2026-0045?"	The complaint, with its status.
"Show me this household's record"	Composition, head of household, housing, location.
"What is the phone number of the head of this household?"	The data, if you are allowed to see it.

Search requires at least 3 characters.

Map

Question	What Bemba returns
"Show the households of Farim on the map"	The points on the map, with their count.
"Show the schools of Bafatá region"	The schools on the map.
"Where are the health services in Oio?"	The health services on the map.
"GBV services in Gabú region"	The GBV services on the map.
"Households in extreme poverty in Mansoa on the map"	The filtered points.

Bemba shows at most 300 points at a time. Narrow the area if the request is too broad.

Documentation and knowledge base

Bemba searches this documentation (guide, tutorials, administration, API) and the published knowledge base articles.

Question	What Bemba returns
"How do I import households from Kobo?"	The steps, with a link to the documentation page.
"How do I handle a sensitive complaint?"	A summary of the procedure and the source reference.
"What does the status integrated mean?"	The definition found in the documentation.

If nothing matches, Bemba says so and suggests rephrasing.

Geographic reference

Question	What Bemba returns
"What are the regions?"	The list of regions.
"List the sectors of Oio region"	The sectors.
"Localities of Bissorã sector"	The localities.

Registration coverage

Question	What Bemba returns
"What is the registration coverage status?"	The summary.
"Coverage by region"	The detail, region by region.

Monitoring and evaluation

Question	What Bemba returns
"How is the 2026 AWPB progressing?"	The progress summary.
"Which activities are overdue?"	The list of overdue activities.
"Indicator status"	The indicators and their progress.
"Are there any alerts?"	The current alerts.

Navigation

Question	What Bemba does
"Open the household list"	Opens the Households screen.
"Go to sensitive complaints"	Opens the corresponding screen.
"Open this household's record"	Opens the record of the household just found.
"Open payments with the search Telecel"	Opens the screen with the search prefilled.

Reachable screens: dashboard, households, new household, duplicates, beneficiaries, programmes, projects, eligibility, transfers, payments, reconciliation, complaints, my complaints, sensitive complaints, map, community workers, schools, health services, GBV services, monitoring and evaluation, coverage, reports, knowledge base, data collection, import, settings, profile.

Complaint filing

Question	What Bemba does
"I want to file a complaint"	Starts guided filing.
"Register a grievance for Maria Silva"	Starts guided filing.

The full process is described in Guided complaint filing.

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Reading an answer

• Figures come from the system. Small badges under the answer show the tools consulted (for example Statistics, Search or Knowledge base). A red badge marks a tool that failed. Without a badge, Bemba did not consult any data: it answers in general terms.
• Sources of a documentation answer are given as links in the answer text.
• Suggestions under the answer offer a next step: click to continue.
• Thumbs up / down tells whether the answer was useful.
• If Bemba does not have the information, it says so. It does not fill in with an estimate.

Following a conversation

Bemba keeps the context of the latest exchanges:

You   : How many households in Oio?
Bemba : 2,456 households are registered in Oio region.

You   : And in Bafatá?
Bemba : 1,823 households are registered in Bafatá region.

You   : Show them on the map
Bemba : 300 points are displayed on the map for Bafatá region.

To change subject, start a new conversation: answers will be more accurate.

Using voice

Dictating a question

1. Click the microphone.
2. Allow microphone access on first use.
3. Speak, then click the microphone again to stop and send.

Listening to answers

• Enable voice in the header: every new answer is read aloud.
• Click Listen under an answer to hear it again.

Language	Voice used
French	French voice
English	English voice
Portuguese	Portuguese voice
Kriol	Portuguese voice (approximation)

Voice relies on browser features. It works in Chrome and Edge. It may be missing in Firefox or Safari.

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What Bemba does not do

• It does not change any data, except creating a complaint through guided filing.
• It does not make up figures: no tool consulted, no number.
• It does not see beyond your scope and permissions.
• It does not execute payments, validate households or delete anything.
• It does not provide exports: use the Reports screens or the lists.
• It does not access the internet or data outside the system, apart from this documentation.

Privacy and scope

Topic	Rule
Scope	Institution, projects, region and permissions apply to every question, exactly as on the screens.
Selected project	If a project is selected in the application, Bemba takes it into account.
Queries	No free-form database queries: closed tools, prepared by the technical team.
Conversations	Stored on the server, available in the history, deletable by you.
Technical logs	They record the tools used and the duration, not the text of your questions.
Usage limit	40 questions per 10 minutes per user.
Answer duration	At most 50 seconds. Beyond that, Bemba offers to retry.

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Troubleshooting

Message or symptom	Cause	What to do
"Too many questions, try again in X seconds"	You exceeded 40 questions in 10 minutes.	Wait for the countdown to end.
"The assistant is currently unavailable"	The artificial intelligence service is not responding.	Try again in a few minutes. If it persists, tell the administrator.
"The assistant is not configured"	The service key is missing on the server.	Tell the administrator: nothing you can do on your side.
"Network problem"	The connection to the server failed midway.	Check your connection, then try again.
"The answer took too long"	The question required too many lookups.	Click Retry or ask a narrower question.
"Request refused"	The service refused to process the request.	Rephrase your question.
Input box greyed out, "offline" notice	You have no connection.	Bemba resumes as soon as the connection returns.
You are sent back to the login screen	Your session expired.	Log in again. The conversation is in the history.
Bemba says it has no access to that data	You lack the permission or the data is outside your scope.	Ask your administrator for access if needed.
The microphone does not start	Permission denied or browser without speech recognition.	Allow the microphone in the browser. Use Chrome or Edge.
No reading aloud	Browser without speech synthesis.	Use Chrome or Edge.
Answer off topic	Ambiguous question, or conversation too long.	Specify the region, programme or period. Start a new conversation.

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Good practices

Tips

1. One question at a time. "Households by region" rather than "households, beneficiaries and payments by region".
2. Name the place and the period. "Payments of March 2026 in Oio" rather than "payments".
3. Use the suggestions. They cover common requests and the logical next step.
4. Check sensitive figures in the relevant screen before communicating them.
5. Give feedback with thumbs up / down.

See also

• Introduction
• Guided complaint filing