What is Knowledge Base?
A knowledge base is an organized repository of information, facts, and documents that serves as an external memory source for AI systems. It stores domain-specific knowledge, company information, documentation, or any other content that agents need to access when answering questions or performing tasks. Knowledge bases enable AI systems to go beyond their training data by providing access to current, specific, or proprietary information through retrieval mechanisms.
Knowledge bases can take various forms depending on their structure and access methods. Document-based knowledge bases store unstructured text (articles, manuals, reports) that is typically chunked, embedded, and stored in vector databases for semantic retrieval. Structured knowledge bases organize information in databases, spreadsheets, or knowledge graphs with explicit relationships between entities. Many systems use hybrid approaches combining structured and unstructured knowledge sources.
In the context of AI agents and RAG systems, the knowledge base serves as the source of truth that grounds the agent's responses. Rather than relying solely on the LLM's parametric knowledge (which can be outdated or prone to hallucinations), agents retrieve relevant information from the knowledge base and use it to formulate accurate, verifiable answers. Maintaining an up-to-date, well-organized knowledge base is critical for the performance and reliability of retrieval-based AI systems.