How Maya works
What happens between your question and Maya's answer — in plain language.
Maya is built around one rule: cite or abstain. Every factual claim must come from the Onyx knowledge base and be cited. If she can't do that, she doesn't answer — she hands your question to a person.
From question to answer
She reads your question in context
Maya reads your question together with the rest of the conversation, so a follow-up like "and for Server 2022?" is understood as being about the same topic. She also takes into account what she remembers about your organisation — your agreement and seat count, for example — and tells you when she has.
She plans
Simple questions are answered directly. Questions with several parts — "compare E3 and E5 for security, and tell me which needs an add-on for Copilot" — are split into separate parts, each researched on its own at the same time. That's the "Thinking through 3 parts" message you see.
If the question is too open to answer well, she asks you one clarifying question instead.
She looks it up
Maya searches the Onyx knowledge base: Microsoft's Product Terms, licensing guides, product documentation and Onyx's curated licensing material, kept up to date by the Onyx team. She notes how recent each source is.
She writes the answer — with sources
The answer is written only from what she found, and the documents she used are listed under it as Sources.
Her answer is checked
Before and after the answer reaches you, automatic checks make sure that:
- it cites the knowledge base — an uncited answer is replaced by a hand-off
- what she wrote matches what the sources say — any claim that doesn't gets called out
- it contains no prices
- it doesn't recommend competing products
- it answers the version you asked about, not a different one
Confidence is scored
Every answer gets a confidence score, based on how well the sources support it and how many agree. You don't see the score, but the Onyx team does. Low-confidence answers are sent to a specialist automatically, even if you don't flag them.
People in the loop
Maya is backed by Onyx Q&A, a team of Onyx licensing specialists. Your question reaches them when:
| Trigger | |
|---|---|
| You flag an answer | You asked a specialist to check it — worked first |
| You mark an answer 👎 Not helpful | The team reviews it |
| Maya hands off | She couldn't verify an answer |
| Maya's answer has low confidence | Sent for review automatically |
A specialist reviews the question, writes the confirmed answer, and publishes it back to you — see Specialist replies. The Onyx team also uses these reviews, and your ratings, to improve the knowledge base and Maya's answers over time.
Your data
- Your conversations, bookmarks and flags belong to your account and are visible only to you — and to Onyx specialists when you flag something or Maya hands off.
- Files you attach are private to you and used only to answer your questions.