For FT Professional subscribers, who are often time-poor but also need to be confident in the decisions they make, there’s now a smarter way to find key insights in the FT’s expert commentary.

Ask FT is a new AI-powered feature that answers questions by searching and summarising FT journalism. In this article we’ll explore how Ask FT works and how FT Professional subscribers can get the most out of it.

Ask FT is the first generative AI feature that the FT has developed for its audience. It’s available exclusively for FT Professional subscribers, who use the FT for work or learning purposes and have a heightened need to find relevant information quickly.

When a question is submitted to Ask FT, it responds by first identifying the most relevant FT journalism in relation to that query. Ask FT then produces a concise AI-generated answer using only FT content, and cites which of the relevant articles were used in the answer.

Employing AI models provided by Anthropic, Ask FT scours the ft.com archives going as far back as 2004 to deliver the right information subscribers are looking for, but in a synthesized and more efficient way than running manual searches.

Also, as Ask FT uses solely FT content and not the AI’s broader knowledge, subscribers can quickly validate answers and have certainty that the output hasn’t come from other external sources.

Using Ask FT is simple and much like running a normal web search. Here’s how to get started:

FT Professional subscribers span a wide range of industries and job functions, from lawyers and consultants, to policymakers working in government. Although the reasons why they read the FT and the actions it informs may differ, they’re united by a need to understand complex or emerging issues quickly, and have the confidence to then apply that to their work.

Ask FT combines the authority and editorial rigour of Financial Times reporting with the power of AI to extract exactly what you need from it on demand.

Let’s take a consultant working with a client in the energy sector. They’re preparing for an upcoming meeting and need to understand the latest developments in global energy policy. They simply ask: “What are the latest global energy policy trends?” In moments, Ask FT provides an insightful summary, along with links to the original content for further reading.

Another example could be a head of business development needing to understand how economic uncertainty is impacting key markets. They type their query into Ask FT: “How is the current economic climate affecting Japan versus Germany?” In response they receive a useful breakdown of the challenges facing both economies, that’s used to adjust their commercial strategy.

Professional subscribers who understand when and how to use Ask FT will benefit from it most. Following the 3 steps below will help get the best results:

1. Be detailed and specific
   Focus on a clear topic or question. Instead of "Tell me about AI," ask, "What are the key challenges of implementing AI in financial services?"
2. Control the time horizon
   Use cues like “recent” or "this month" in your questions, or apply the pre-set time filters.
3. Review the sources
   Dive deeper into original FT reporting to discover the most closely related journalism to your question.

Further guidance on using Ask FT, as well as more detail on the underlying technology that powers it is available here. If you can’t find an answer to your question, please reach out to our Customer Success team at customer.success@ft.com.

An FT Professional Subscription not only offers a cost-effective and flexible way to enable groups, teams and entire organisations to access FT journalism, but also provides exclusive features that have been developed specifically to make FT reporting more useful in work and education settings.

Ask FT is part of a suite of tools that facilitate the research process. Highlighting lets you save and organise specific points and sections of text in FT articles you may want to come back to later.

The availability of FT content on over 60 third party aggregator platforms, as well as a Microsoft Teams integration also make an FT Professional Subscription the standout option for organisations who want their teams to use high-quality market intelligence while not disrupting day-to-day workflow.

Read this article for an overview of what’s included in an FT Professional Subscription and get in touch with our team to discuss your requirements further.

Help your team make better decisions with the FT’s trusted analysis. For more information about how FT Professional can help your organisation, please get in touch.