AI assistant and voice
The command bar at the bottom of every page answers questions and carries out actions, typed or spoken. A request that changes something is always read back first and done only when you confirm. A request that needs more details becomes a conversation: the assistant asks for each missing detail, checks every answer against your records, and keeps asking until it has what it needs or you cancel. Everything you can do this way is limited to what your roles allow on screen.
1. Use the command bar
- Click the bar or press / to type; press Enter or Go.
- Press Alt+V (or the microphone) to speak; speak the whole sentence; it is sent when you pause. Alt+V or Esc stops listening.
- Hands-free keeps listening for the next command after each answer, and the assistant speaks its answers. It ignores its own voice.
- Examples shows sentences that work.
Voice needs Chrome or Edge, a microphone allowed for the site, and a secure address (https, or localhost). When the browser's speech service is unreachable, the app records and transcribes with the PALBON AI service instead. Messages such as The microphone is blocked for this site say what to fix.
2. Ask questions
| You say or type | You get |
|---|---|
| Show LCs expiring in 14 days | The live credits expiring in the next 14 days |
| What is the status of LC MTB/LC/26/0101 | The credit's state and key dates |
| What is the expiry date of LC ACB/LC/26/0108 | One field of one record |
| How many letters of credit are issued? | A count |
| Total expected margin of confirmed trades | A sum (also average, maximum, minimum) |
| Show trades with sale value above 5 million | A filtered list |
| Show confirmed trades, Tell me about trade T.0101 | Lists and summaries |
| How much headroom on the Meridian facility? | Limit, utilised, available |
| Where is MV Ocean Pride? | The voyage's last position, speed and ETA |
| Screen Northwind Resources, Is Bosphorus Refineries sanctioned? | The counterparty's KYC, sanctions and risk |
| What is waiting for me?, My approvals | The records at a workflow step your roles act on, and your to-dos |
| Open the letters of credit, Go to voyages | Opens a screen |
| New letter of credit, Open a new trade form | Opens an empty form |
| Open vessel Ocean Pride | Opens one record |
3. Act
Each of these is previewed first (… Shall I go ahead?); nothing changes until you say yes (or click Yes, go ahead):
| You say or type | Does |
|---|---|
| Log NOR tendered for Ocean Pride at today 08:30 | Adds the event to the voyage's statement of facts |
| Record the B/L for Ocean Pride dated 21 Sep 2026 for 76230 MT number BL/0101/2026 | Sets the bill of lading on the voyage |
| Update the position of Ocean Pride to 13.2, 84.6 at 12.4 knots | Sets the position |
| Set the speed of voyage VOY-2026-00003 to 12.5 | Changes one field of one record |
| Mark LC MTB/LC/26/0101 as accepted | Takes the workflow action that leads there |
| Approve letter of credit LC-2026-00003 | A workflow action |
| Check the documents of trade T.0101 purchase leg | Runs the document checks |
| Run screening on Gulf Fertiliser | Runs a sanctions screening |
| Recalculate the laytime for Ocean Pride | Recalculates the voyage's laytime calculations |
| Create a port named Zeta Harbour with UN/LOCODE SGZTH | Creates a record of any type |
4. Conversations
When a request needs more than one sentence, the assistant asks:
A trade. Create a back-to-back trade → What kind of trade: back-to-back, purchase only, or sale only? … Which commodity are we trading? … How much? … Who are we buying from? … At what price per unit are we buying? … Who are we selling to? … At what price per unit are we selling? Then it reads back the whole trade with the margin per unit and on the whole quantity, and warns when the sale price is not above the purchase price.
A sentence can carry several answers at once: Create a back-to-back trade of 50,000 MT steam coal from Northwind at 51.72 to Harbourline at 52.39 USD is asked only for what is still missing. When a word fits two records (for example two steam coals), the one these parties already trade is chosen and said in the read-back; or you are asked to pick: the first, the second.
A contract of any type. Create a charter party → With which supplier? → For which commodity? → What quantity? → At what price or rate per unit? → the read-back. Create a contract first asks Which kind of contract?; a long-term supply agreement asks Is it a purchase or a sale?; a hedging agreement asks the bank and the period. An unknown answer is met with the list of valid choices.
Any record. Create a vessel, Create a bank facility: the assistant asks for the fields the record type requires.
During a conversation you can say:
| Say | Effect |
|---|---|
| yes / no | Confirm the read-back / change something |
| change the price to 52, the currency is EUR | Change one answer |
| go back | Back to the previous question |
| skip | Leave an optional detail empty |
| help, what is missing?, repeat | Hear what is still needed |
| open the form | Open the form with what you said so far, to finish by hand |
| start again | Start over |
| cancel | Stop; nothing is created or changed |
Before the read-back the assistant runs the record type's own validation, so a problem (The commodity is still needed, A Charter Party needs: Commodity, Quantity, Base Price per Unit) is asked about instead of failing on save.
5. Fill a form from a document
On a new or edited form, Fill from a document reads a PDF, scan or photo (for example the bank's credit, a surveyor's certificate, an invoice) into the form's fields with the PALBON AI model. The file is uploaded privately; the values are put in the form and listed (12 fields filled from coa.pdf. Check them, then save.); nothing is saved until you save. Reading scans and photos needs a vision model configured in the PALBON AI service; text PDFs are read without it.
6. Numbers, dates and languages
Numbers, money and dates are shown and spoken in your language and your company's country format (for example 1,23,45,678.50 in India). Spoken numbers (fifty-one point seven two), units (metric tonnes) and currency words (dollars, rupees) are understood.
7. The AI log
Administration › Audit › AI Action Log (/palbon-trade-finance/ai-log) keeps every command: who, the sentence, the channel (text or voice), what was understood, what was done or why it failed, and the record changed. Open any entry to see it in full.
8. Without the AI service
Every sentence shape on this page is understood by the app's own grammar, without a language model. The PALBON AI service, which runs as part of your PALBON-Suites installation, adds free-form questions, offline transcription and document reading.