topic Re: Can Genie ask clarifying questions? in Generative AI

Can Genie ask clarifying questions?

yvesbeutler — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 07:45:44 GMT

I am looking for a way to force Genie to ask questions when an instruction is not entirely clear. Are there specific options or instructions that I could use for this, or is it managed internally by Databricks and we cannot adjust it?

I would like Genie to ask for clarification when the time period is unclear or when I mention clients, asking whether I mean private or business clients. Unfortunately, I can't achieve this through instructions.

Thanks for any help!

Re: Can Genie ask clarifying questions?

Vinay_M_R — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 12:08:59 GMT

Hello @yvesbeutler ,

AI/BI Genie selects relevant names and descriptions from annotated tables and columns to convert natural language questions to an equivalent SQL query. Then, it responds with the generated query and results table, if possible. If Genie can't generate an answer, it can ask follow-up questions to clarify before providing a response.

I am sharing official documentation for your reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/genie/#overview

You can follow below instructions/best practice that you can use to achieve this:
1.) You can add instructions along these lines E.g. ask users to clarify words like effective, best, etc which are relevant to their query.

2.) You can also add the general instructions like: "If the user asks vague or unclear questions, ask for follow-up clarifications before generating results."

3.)After following what is mentioned in 2. if still Genie continues to directly generate results. Once it generates the results, you can click on "Fix it" and then provide the exact same instruction again and see if that helps.

I hope this helps!

Re: Can Genie ask clarifying questions?

Sharanya13 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 04:59:37 GMT

Thanks @Vinay_M_R for the detailed explanation. It's good to know that Genie can ask clarifying questions.