Introducing Ask Alphie
Alphie is the powerful AI assistant built into GymOS, for gym staff and managers. Alphie may be accessed via the GymOS FitnessHub mobile app (version 2.6 and above) and from within the main GymOS administration portal.
Built upon private versions of the latest Anthropic, OpenAI, and Azure AI models, Alphie has been equiped with a specific (and ever-growing) set of GymOS knowledge and abilities. As well as being able to answer questions about how to use GymOS, Alphie can go much further. He is versed in a broader understanding of how to operate a successful small group personal training gym, and has dozens of skills enabling him to provide up-to-date answers to questions about activities and data within your GymOS system.
Note: Alphie is constrained to only answering questions about GymOS and the fitness sector. His remit is to assist you in the operation of your gym and, particularly, your usage of the GymOS gym management system. He does not replace your ‘general use’ ChatGPT or Claude subscriptions.
Understanding AI assistants
Whilst it may seem it, AI is not magic! ChatGPT and Claude are language learning models (LLM’s). They interpret questions, understand context, and match knowledge. However, they only know what they are taught.
The same applies to Alphie. He has been trained in a wide range of GymOS and industry skills and knowledge, but he only knows what he has been taught. We continue to add more skills to Alphie on a regular basis. We also log and monitor the quality of responses Alphie gives, and improve his knowledge and tooling as necessary.
Accessing Alphie
If you are an employee or manager with a GymOS account, you can access Alphie via either the mobile app or the main GymOS administration portal.
Within the administration portal, Ask Alphie is access from the top of the main navigation menu. In the mobile app, Alphie may be access from the banner on the home page, or by clicking on the Ask Alphie icon in the top toolbar of the app.
Asking Alphie a question
To ask Alphie a question, simply type your question in plain English in the same way as you would as a colleague. Where you reference a particular ‘thing’ in GymOS, such as a session or membership, try to use the same name as it is called in GymOS. You might understand what you mean by your “large group kettlebell class”, but if it’s in the schedule as “Big bells”, Alphie is unlikely to spot the match!
As well as being able to type a question, you may use the built-in speech-to-text feature in Ask Alphie to speak you questions (max. 15 seconds in length). Your question will be converted to text within your phone and the resulting question displayed for you to review and edit before pressing Send.
Alphie’s behaviour
Alphie has a behaviour and manner that is consistent across all of his abilities. Details may be found in the Alphie’s behaviour article.
There is also a set of rules of things that Alphie is not permitted to do. Information on these may be found in the What Alphie many not do article.
The abiltiies that Alphie will avail to you depend on your access level. Managers get access to the full suite of abilities, whereas employees have a sub-set. An employee, for example, may not make any enquiry about gym-wide financial numbers.
Alphie’s wide range of skills and knowledge
The Ask Alphie assistant has an extensive range of skills, knowledge, and abilities. These are ever-evolving, and span a wide range of different genres.
The Alphie’s skills and knowledge article provides the high-level list of Alphie’s abilities, with the ability to drilldown to learn more about each skill.
Getting the most from Alphie
Getting the most from Alphie comes naturally from using the GymOS system in the manner it has been designed, and taking advantage of the extensive functionality it provides.
If, for example, you do not manage your leads in GymOS, Alphie cannot tell you anything about them. He has no idea how many leads you had, where they are on their trials, and how many have converted. However, if you use GymOS for your lead management, he has access to all of this data and much more.
Similarly, much of Alphie’s knowledge about the financial state of your business comes from the Business Analytics (or Source of Truth) features. If you have not configured these, Alphie will not have access to the resulting data. This, therefore, is one area to ensure you have activated and get the resulting benefits from.
Asking lots of questions
Alphie retains context, as outlined in the Alphie’s behaviour article. This is great if you are asking follow-up questions. However, if you are asking Alphie a range of questions on different topics, we recommend clicking the Start a new conversation link or button to reset his context and so that he doesn’t infur your previous questions into a different topic.
A record of your conversation
If you wish to retain a record of your conversation with Alphie, you may click the Download this conversation link in the admin portal, or the button in the mobile app.
The conversation is only retained for the period that you are on the screen. Once you move away from the conversation, the history is lost.
Data safety and integrity
Unlike non-integrated AI tools, where you upload your member, lead, and financial data (compromising almost every legal requirement for personal information management), and cross your fingers and hope nothing leaks, Alphie uses those same powerful tools in a controlled, sandboxed environment – resulting in a considerably stronger and safer system.
More importantly, all computations, data access and data generation is done within GymOS. Whilst AI is used to understand your question and format the resulting responses, the data itself is handled and managed by GymOS. The data sent to and handled by Anthropic’s Claude AI models is limited to that used to process the question and render the answer.
Additionally, with all calculations being performed by GymOS and written by the Quoox development team, there is no AI “guesswork” as to where figures come from or how they’re calculated. The data in your GymOS system is the data upon which Alphie reliable analyses and responds to your questions.
Compliance
In compliance with Google Play and App Store policies regarding AI models and AI generated content, you are asked to give your consent to key usage terms upon first accessing Ask Alphie in both the Android and iOS versions of the mobile app. If you do not consent, you will not be able to use the Ask Alphie functions.
As required by both Google and Apple, a “Report this answer” function is provided. This should primarily be used in the unlikely event of Alphie responding in an offensive or inappropriate manner. It also provides a mechanism for reporting erroneous or misleading responses, which are reviewed and dealt with periodically as per the “if Alphie makes a mistake” guidance outlined below.
Change log
We regularly review the usage of Alphie, add new tools & abilities, and seek to improve his responses (where required).
A log of the changes and updates made to Alphie may be found in the Alphie change log article.
If Alphie makes a mistake
Remember, Alphie is an AI assistant and, whilst he has been tested extensively, by the very nature of AI he may make occassional errors.
It is important that you sense check and verify any information he provides if you are to use it for any critical purpose.
Whilst you may, there is no need to raise errors with the GymOS team. All conversations are logged, and are verified on a regular basis. Where we identify mistakes or limits in Alphie’s abilities, we will seek to remedy them (where possible).
Due to the extremely complex nature of AI, the support team will not be able to determine where Alphie derived an answer from or how he came to a conclusion. That is a highly technical exercise that can only be undertaken by the development team, and is a bulk review process undertaken periodically as opposed to on an ad hoc enquiry basis.