Integrate AI in SharePoint: Step-by-Step Instructions

Enterprises looking to enhance their SharePoint experience can turn to QAnswer for a powerful and cost-effective alternative. It enables seamless integration of an AI chatbot that connects directly to SharePoint content, providing secure, natural-language access to internal documents, knowledge bases, and intranet pages. With flexible deployment options, secure authentication, and full control over visibility, QAnswer delivers advanced capabilities at a lower cost compared to other enterprise solutions.

Here’s how to deploy the QAnswer chatbot inside SharePoint with secure authentication, styling options, and full control over visibility.

Step 1: Create Your AI Assistant and Connect to SharePoint

Log in to QAnswer and create your AI assistant and connect your SharePoint account using secure authentication.

You choose which SharePoint sites or documents the assistant can access — and it will only have access to those, nothing else. This ensures strict data boundaries and full control.

Access is managed through Microsoft login. Your data stays within your organization’s ecosystem, and no user queries are stored or used for training or analytics.

Step 2: Select an AI Task

Navigate to the AI Tasks section and choose the task your assistant will perform. Options include:

• Search: Allows users to retrieve specific documents or pieces of information using keywords or questions.
• Chat: Enables a conversational experience where users interact with the assistant in natural language.
• Data Extractor: Extracts structured data points from documents (e.g. names, amounts, deadlines).
• Report Generation: Automatically summarizes or generates structured reports from document content.

For this example, we’ll select Chat, which is ideal for offering real-time support or document exploration through a conversational interface.

Step 3 (Optional): Customize Your Assistant’s Behavior

To personalize how your chatbot answers questions, go to the Prompt section.

You can write a custom prompt tailored to your organization (e.g. "Answer as an HR assistant using only SharePoint policies"), or use the default prompt provided by QAnswer.

This step is optional — the default works well for most use cases, but advanced teams may benefit from fine-tuning.

Step 4 (Optional): Choose the LLM and Advanced Parameters

Next, head to the Model section to select the language model that powers your assistant.

You can:

• Choose the QAnswer private secure LLM — optimized for internal use and hosted in Europe.
• Or use public LLMs such as GPT-4, Claude, or Mistral.
• Configure additional parameters like temperature, response length, or reasoning style.

This gives you full flexibility depending on your privacy needs or performance expectations.

Step 5: Set Up the SharePoint Integration

Navigate to the Expose tab inside QAnswer.

Choose SharePoint Integration to generate an embeddable chatbot widget specifically designed for SharePoint environments.

This option ensures the assistant is compatible with SharePoint’s iframe security and layout structure.

Step 6: Choose Access Type for the Chatbot

Decide how users will access your chatbot:

• Public Access: Anyone visiting the SharePoint page can use the chatbot.
• API Key: Restricts access to authenticated or internal users only.

Select your preferred option during widget generation. This controls how open or restricted your chatbot will be within the SharePoint site.

Step 7: Customize the Chatbot Widget

Match the widget to your internal branding and UI preferences. You can configure:

• Welcome message
• Theme: Auto, Light, or Dark
• Position on screen
• Margin from screen edges (X/Y in pixels)
• Accent color
• Font style

Use the live preview to test your settings before embedding.

Step 8: Allow External iFrames in SharePoint

To display the chatbot in SharePoint, you must authorize QAnswer’s domain for iframe embedding.

1. Go to your SharePoint site
2. Click the gear icon → Site Information
3. Click View all site settings
4. Under Site Collection Administration, select HTML Field Security
5. In the field “Allow contributors to insert iframes only from the following domains,”
   add: https://app.qanswer.ai
6. Save the changes

This step ensures SharePoint will allow the chatbot iframe to render properly.

Step 9: Embed the Chatbot on a SharePoint Page

1. Open the SharePoint page where you want the chatbot to appear
2. Click Edit
3. Click See all web parts, then search for Embed
4. Select Embed and paste the iframe code provided by QAnswer
5. Adjust the width and height if necessary
6. Click Republish to apply the changes

Example iFrame Snippet

Here’s an example embed code. Replace yourKB and user with your assistant's actual values:

<iframe src="https://app.qanswer.ai/widget?kb=yourKB&amp;user=admin&amp;type=text&amp;isSharepoint=true"
 id="qanswer-widget"
 allow="microphone; clipboard-write"
 referrerpolicy="origin"
 frameborder="0"
 style="border:none;overflow:hidden;display:none;position:fixed;right:16px;bottom:16px;z-index:9999;"
 allowtransparency="true"
 onload="
   var iframe = this;
   window.addEventListener('message', function (e) {
     if (e.origin !== 'https://app.qanswer.ai') return;
     if (e.data.type === 'eval') Function(e.data.code).call(null, iframe);
   });
"></iframe>


You’re All Set

Your AI chatbot is now live in SharePoint — offering fast, secure access to selected content through natural language.
Whether your goal is employee support, document navigation, or internal knowledge access, QAnswer makes SharePoint smarter.

Need help with Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, or other tool integrations? Contact Us to get support tailored to your organization. Contact Page