Steward

Steward is Sted’s AI assistant, a duck who looks after compliance. He runs your onboarding conversation, answers questions in Ask, offers the actions that fit the document or record you have open, and signs your welcome and digest emails. He speaks in the first person but never pretends to be a person.

What this is

Sted gives its assistant one name and one voice, so you meet the same character in onboarding, in Ask and in your inbox. Steward talks like a capable colleague who has already read the regulation: plain British English, short sentences, a dry line when the moment is light, and no jokes at all when the subject is an incident, something that went wrong or what applies to you. He is an AI, says so if asked, and never pretends otherwise.

The documents Sted generates for you carry none of this. Your policies read as your organisation’s, not as Steward’s.

Yes, he is a duck

Steward’s button shows a duck in a speech bubble. The duck is the character, not a mascot that performs: the odd pun, and only when nothing is at stake.

Where to find it

On a computer, Steward’s button sits at the bottom right of most pages. When you open a document or record he asks Need to do something with this?, and selecting the button or the question opens his menu. On a phone the button is not drawn; open the Menu and his actions are listed under the heading Steward.

The button stays out of the way on the onboarding conversation, the draft review and Ask, which have their own guidance.

How it works

Steward’s menu lists the actions that fit what you have open, and only the ones open to you.

Action	Where it appears	What it does
Edit this draft	A document you can edit	Opens the draft in edit mode
Create new version	An approved document, or a record, you can version	Starts a new draft or a new version of the record
Assign to another user	A document or record	Picks a new owner
Assign to me	A document or record	Makes you the owner
Withdraw record	A record you can withdraw	Withdraws the record
Duplicate record	A record you can duplicate	Starts a copy
Export as PDF	A document or record you can export	Downloads a PDF
Ask Steward	Everywhere the menu shows	Opens Ask

Each action appears only where it applies to what you have open. On a plan without PDF export, Export as PDF still appears and opens a notice naming the plan that includes it.

Use an action

Open the document or record.
Select Steward’s button, or open the Menu on a phone.
Select the action.
Complete the dialog it opens, if it opens one.

Onboarding

Steward learns about your organisation in a conversation, phase by phase, in place of long forms. The onboarding conversation covers it.

Ask

Ask Steward answers questions about what standards and Sted’s knowledge base say, with quoted sources, and from your own records, tasks, training and documents, as you and within your permissions. Ask him how to do something in Sted and he looks it up in these docs and links you to the page. Ask Steward covers how conversations, evidence and access notes work.

Emails he signs

The welcome email and the digest emails are Steward’s, written in his voice and signed “Steward”. Emails about one event, such as an assignment, an invitation or a record sent for approval, come from Sted and are not signed. The weekly digests list your open tasks.

What keeps him in line

Every model call that takes your input is screened by a guardrail before it reaches the model. Where your data lives covers where the model runs.

Permissions

Action	Administrator	Policy and Process Owner	Reviewer	Personnel
Open Steward’s menu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit this draft	Yes	Drafts of documents they own	No	No
Create new version	Yes	Documents they own	No	No
Assign a document’s owner	Yes	No	No	No
Assign a record’s owner	Yes	Records of documents they own, or of a document they train on while the record is open	No	Records of a document they train on, while the record is open
Withdraw or duplicate a record	Yes	Records of documents they own	No	No
Export as PDF	Yes	What they can open	Approved documents and records they can open	Approved documents and records they can open
Ask Steward	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Reviewers and Personnel see only Approved documents, so they never see a draft to edit. Withdrawing or duplicating a record needs an administrator or the owner of its document. Actions your level or the record does not allow are left out of the menu or shown greyed out.

Limits and plan features

What Steward’s menu can do follows your plan, so Export as PDF opens an upgrade notice on Preview. On a phone there is no prompt when you open a document; the same actions wait in the Menu.

Ask Steward: asking questions and reading his answers.
The onboarding conversation: the first conversation you have with him.
Finding your way around Sted: where his button and menu sit among the rest of the app.
Approving documents and versions: what happens after Create new version.
Exporting documents and records as PDF: what Export as PDF produces.

Frequently asked questions

Is Steward an AI?

Yes. Steward is the AI assistant inside Sted, and he never pretends to be a person. He has a name and a duck’s face so the product has one voice you can recognise, not to hide what he is.

Why can’t I see Steward’s button on my phone?

Because on a narrow screen it covered too much of the page. The same actions are in the Menu under the heading Steward, so nothing is lost; only the prompt that pops up when you open a document is desktop-only.

Does Steward joke about serious things?

No. He keeps the wit for light moments and drops it for anything serious, such as an incident, something that went wrong or what applies to you. Written compliance answers stay plain.

Who sends the weekly digest email?

Steward does, and he signs it. The welcome email is his too. Emails about a specific event, such as an assignment, an invitation or a record waiting for approval, come from Sted and are not signed.