What is chunking?
Chunking is splitting a long document into smaller pieces before they are embedded and searched. The size of the piece changes what the assistant can retrieve.
In plain English
If you upload a 40-page manual as one blob, search may return the whole blob or the wrong half. Smaller sections with clear titles ('Opening,' 'Returns,' 'Close') are easier to find. You often do this by writing the SOP as separate headed sections, even if a tool chunks the file for you. Read one retrieved passage the way a new hire would, with no other page open. If it says 'as mentioned above' and the above is gone, the split is wrong. Keep a heading and the price in the same passage. Do not chase a perfect chunk size from a tutorial. Chase passages that still make sense alone. After you split a handbook, ask a question you know the answer to and see whether the right passage comes back alone.
How an owner would use it
Write SOPs with short headings and one job per section. Do not bury the current price in a paragraph under last year's story.
Common mistakes
Splitting a document into tiny fragments with no headings makes search worse, not better. A chunk that says 'see above' is useless when it is retrieved alone. Do not obsess over token-perfect chunk sizes from a tutorial. Write sections a new hire could read on their own. If a price lives in a story from two years ago, move the price to a labeled line.
A worked example
An independent bookstore
Returns in their own section
This is an illustration, not a customer result. The staff handbook was one long document. The owner split returns, special orders, and closing into headed sections. The assistant can pull the returns steps without also quoting the holiday party note from the same file.
Related terms
Prompts and guides
Questions owners ask
What is chunking?
Chunking is breaking documents into smaller labeled pieces so AI search can retrieve the relevant piece instead of a whole manual.
How do I chunk business documents?
Use clear headings and one topic per section. Keep current rules out of old narrative. Then point the assistant at that file.
Do I chunk files myself?
Often the product chunks uploads for you. You still control the headings and what you upload. Clear sections beat a clever split of a messy manual.
Product guides are on AI apps for business.