What is AI memory?
AI memory is information a product saves from past chats so later answers can use it. It might be a note the app writes, or a setting you typed.
In plain English
Memory is convenient and risky. A saved preference ('write short') is useful. A saved customer balance is a bad idea, because it will go stale and it may show up in the wrong chat. The books should remember the balance. The assistant can remember that you like short sentences. Saved memory is a convenience and a liability. It will help the assistant remember that you sign off with the shop name. It will also remember a one-time discount and offer it again in June. Review what the product stored. Delete the stale bits. Do not let memory become a second, invisible policy. Turn memory off for a shared login. One person's preference becomes everyone's ghost instruction. Clear it when the offer changes. Wipe it again when a shared login changes hands. Purge leftovers after a seasonal sale.
How an owner would use it
Store voice and standing rules. Do not store customer financials, health details, or passwords. Clear memory when it quotes something you no longer do.
Common mistakes
Memory feels like a feature and acts like a junk drawer. It will repeat a preference you changed, or a student's nickname in the wrong family's email. Do not store balances, health notes, passwords, or 'always offer a discount' you no longer mean. Clear memory when it quotes a rule you retired. If the product cannot show you what it saved, do not use memory for anything you would be ashamed to see in the wrong chat.
A worked example
A piano teacher
Remember the format, not the student's balance
This is an illustration, not a customer result. The assistant remembers that practice notes should be five lines and that lesson times come from the calendar, not from memory. It does not store what a family owes. That number is typed from the sheet for that month's reminder.
Related terms
Prompts and guides
Questions owners ask
What is AI memory?
Memory is saved context a product reuses in later chats. It is separate from the current context window, and it can be wrong if the fact changed.
How should an owner use memory?
Save style and standing rules. Keep live business numbers in the ledger or the job file, and paste them when needed.
Is memory the same as the context window?
No. The context window is what this conversation can see right now. Memory is what the product saved to reuse later. Both can be wrong. Neither replaces the calendar or the books.
Product guides are on AI apps for business.