Overview
Arcules Ask is an early, experimental look at how we might make video surveillance data more accessible, useful, and actionable through natural language. This AI-powered conversational interface is designed to help users interact with their video systems in a more intuitive way, whether you're looking for specific activity, exploring patterns, or generating summaries across your infrastructure.
While this release focuses on foundational use cases, it’s really just the first step in a broader experiment: exploring how the Arcules platform can evolve from a traditional monitoring tool into a more powerful, AI-assisted decision-support system.
Look for the icon in the top left navigation bar to get started!
Prerequisite
An admin must enable AI features in the Organization Settings.
Getting started
To help you navigate what's available, we've created reference tables outlining the functionalities and specific data categories you can prompt. We're continuously expanding these capabilities based on feedback.
Functionality | Description | Available |
Read only access | View and analyze data | ✓ |
Access control | Responses are limited by the user’s existing roles and permissions. Users can only query data they are already authorized to access within the platform. | ✓ |
Chat history
| Chats and their results can be saved for future reference or analysis | - |
Data Category | Details | Available |
Device | Name, ID, device type, IP address, MAC address | ✓ |
Device Status | Health status, firmware version | ✓ |
Location | Site and location name, timezone | ✓ |
Camera Capabilities | PTZ support details where applicable | ✓ |
Thumbnails | Video snapshots | ✓ |
Object Detection | Detection counts, specific object detection (people, vehicle) filtering options, time-based analysis | ✓ |
Line Crossing | Line crossing analytic data | ✓ |
Alarm | Alarm ID, type, priority, trigger conditions, status, time filtering | ✓ |
Rules | Rule configuration, notification conditions | ✓ |
User Profile | Personal roles and permissions, group membership, user preferences | ✓ |
IoT | Connection status, device types, locations, and firmware status | ✓ |
Audit Logs | System audit logs, access control logs | - |
Device Health | Device health logs for troubleshooting | - |
Cases | Case and evidence data | - |
Views | Views configuration | - |
This is an experimental AI feature for exploring your video data. It can surface interesting insights and summaries, but it’s not perfect: responses may sometimes be inaccurate, outdated, or misinterpreted. Think of it as a guide to spark ideas, and double-check any critical details with your system data.
Response times
Response generation may take up to a few minutes, especially for large environments with many devices or complex queries. We're actively tuning performance as we learn from real-world use.
How can I provide feedback?
Your feedback is essential to improving the experience. After each response, you’ll see 👍 or 👎 buttons. Please use these to let us know if the answer was helpful or missed the mark. You can also include a short comment to clarify what worked well or what was confusing, inaccurate, or missing.
This feedback is reviewed regularly by our product and engineering teams to:
Identify common issues or misunderstandings
Improve how the AI interprets and answers questions
Prioritize future enhancements
For urgent or sensitive concerns, or if you’d like to have a deeper conversation about your experience, please reach out to pm@arcules.com or drop a message in the intercom chat .
FAQ
What AI model does Ask use?
Ask currently uses Claude, a large language model developed by Anthropic.
Can I select my own preferred models of choice?
Not at this time. We automatically use the latest vetted model to ensure optimal performance, accuracy, and reliability, so you don’t need to manage models yourself.
How is my data used?
Your data is processed securely to generate the response. We do not use your data to train public models.
Is Ask available for all Cloud, Edge, C2C deployments? Will there be any differences between the different architectures?
Yes. The only difference is the data that feeds the AI, which can vary slightly depending on your deployment, but your experience and insights remain seamless.
How does Arcules Ask handle roles and permissions?
Ask respects existing roles and permissions. It only provides information the user is already allowed to see. It does not grant access to any additional data beyond what their current account permits.