What Otto suggests before you ask

When you open Otto, before you type anything, it greets you and shows a short Suggested list. The list isn't generic: it's what's worth a look in your own data right now, with a count. Select a row and Otto answers it.

What you see#

• Up to 3 suggestions, most important first.
• Four quick actions below them: Summarize, Find, Report and How do I. Selecting one shows up to 4 options in place of the suggestions, only for pages you can open. An option puts a complete question in the message box ("Which open tickets are assigned to me?"), ready to send with Enter or to change first, or, under How do I, opens the Help Center article. See Quick actions.

Suggestions come in three kinds, in this order.

When there is nothing yet#

Otto answers from your data, so an empty area comes first. If schoolOS has no assets, or no people, the top row is Import your assets or Import your people, with a line saying why. It opens the import page, not a question.

You only see these if you can open that import page. People who can import usually see everything, so zero really means none. Once the first records arrive, the row goes away.

What it looks for#

Then, things in your data worth a look. Each shows only when its count is above zero:

| Suggestion | Asks Otto | | --- | --- | | Devices marked missing, lost or stolen | Which devices are missing, lost or stolen? | | Open tickets at your most urgent priority | Show open Emergency and Urgent tickets (your own priority names) | | Open tickets past their SLA | Which open tickets are past their SLA? | | Overdue tasks | Which tasks are overdue? | | Workflow runs failed this week | Which workflows failed this week? | | Spares out more than 14 days | Which spares have been out more than 14 days? | | Tickets open more than 7 days | Show open tickets older than 7 days | | Parts low or out of stock | Which parts are low or out of stock? | | Warranties ending in the next 30 days | Which warranties end in the next 30 days? | | Audits in progress | How are the audits in progress going? | | Devices never synced from your MDM | Which devices have never synced from our MDM? |

The list is in order of urgency: missing devices and most urgent tickets first, MDM sync last. Between two of the same urgency, the larger count goes first.

A few details:

• Most urgent priority counts open tickets at the first priority in each of your departments' priority lists, in the order your account set, whatever it's named: "Emergency" for Facilities and "Urgent" for IT, say. If your account has no priorities, this one never shows.
• Spares are devices in your Spare pool, whether lent from a ticket or checked out at a front desk.
• Audits counts device audits in progress.

Your account's suggested prompts#

If there are fewer than 3 suggestions, your account's own suggested prompts fill the rest, in their saved order. On a quiet day, or in a new account, you may see only those. If the counts can't load, you see the prompts instead.

Counts are only what you can see#

Every count is worked out as you, with your products, your role and your schools. Someone at one school sees that school's overdue tasks. A district admin sees the district's. Two people can open Otto at the same moment and see different numbers, and both are right.

When your account has departments, tickets, tasks, assets and parts are counted in the workspace you're in, the same department Otto answers about. Open Otto in Facilities and "Parts low or out of stock" counts Facilities parts. Switch workspaces and the counts follow. See Which answers follow the workspace.

A suggestion doesn't show if:

• your account doesn't have the product, like parts without inventory,
• your role can't see that data, or
• an admin turned off the capability behind it in AI Capabilities.

For example, on the Monday after spring break:

• The district's technology director opens Otto and sees "6 devices marked missing, lost or stolen", "3 open Emergency or Urgent tickets" and "12 open tickets past their SLA", because every one of those is above zero district-wide.
• A middle school tech assigned to one building opens Otto at the same moment. At that school, the only count above zero is 2 overdue tasks. That's the first row, and the account's first two suggested prompts fill the rest.

How fresh the counts are#

Counts are kept for 10 minutes. Open Otto again within that time and you may see the same numbers, even if something changed. After 10 minutes, they're counted again. The answer you get when you select a suggestion is always current.