ChatGPT-enabled AI assistant in portal

Adding a ChatGPT-powered assistant to your web portal (like Microsoft Power Pages, SharePoint, or a custom site) enhances user engagement, offers real-time support, and reduces manual effort. Whether it’s answering FAQs, guiding users through processes, or providing intelligent suggestions, this AI assistant can be context-aware and available 24/7.

Below is a complete breakdown of how to integrate a ChatGPT-enabled AI assistant into your portal.

Step 1: Define the Purpose of Your AI Assistant

Start by identifying why you’re adding ChatGPT:

24/7 customer support for FAQs
Guided navigation for complex workflows
Smart form filling or product recommendations
Conversational interface for onboarding or training
Internal employee assistant for HR, IT, or compliance queries

Step 2: Choose the Integration Approach

There are multiple ways to integrate ChatGPT depending on your portal’s tech stack:

Option A: Power Pages or SharePoint Portals

Use Azure OpenAI with Power Automate & Power Virtual Agents (PVA)

Option B: Custom HTML/JS Portal

Embed ChatGPT via API using JavaScript

Option C: No-Code Chat Widgets

Use platforms like Chatbase, Botpress, or Landbot with GPT integrations

Step 3: Set Up Azure OpenAI (For Microsoft Stack)

Create an Azure OpenAI Resource
- Go to Azure Portal → Create Resource → Search “Azure OpenAI”
- Choose a region (e.g., East US) where OpenAI is available
- Deploy a model (e.g., gpt-3.5-turbo or gpt-4)
Get API Key and Endpoint
- Navigate to Keys and Endpoints under the OpenAI resource
- Copy your API key and endpoint for later use

Step 4: Build a Custom Chatbot (Power Platform Approach)

Use Power Virtual Agents (PVA)

Create a Bot in Power Virtual Agents
- Go to Power Virtual Agents → New Bot
- Customize the welcome message and topics
Connect with Azure OpenAI
- Use Power Automate to call OpenAI APIs from within a topic:
  - Trigger → HTTP action
  - Endpoint: Your Azure OpenAI URL
  - Headers: Authorization (Bearer key), Content-Type: application/json
  - Body: Include the message from user and pass to GPT model
Embed the Bot into Power Pages
- Go to Power Pages → Add Chatbot → Select your PVA bot
- It will show in the bottom-right as a live chat widget

Step 5: Embed a JavaScript ChatGPT Widget (Custom Portals)

If using a non-Microsoft stack or custom HTML site, you can embed a GPT bot using JS.

Option: Custom GPT Bot Using HTML + JS

<script>
  async function sendMessageToGPT(message) {
    const response = await fetch("https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions", {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        model: "gpt-3.5-turbo",
        messages: [{ role: "user", content: message }]
      })
    });
    const data = await response.json();
    document.getElementById("chat-response").innerText = data.choices[0].message.content;
  }
</script>

Design a front-end widget with HTML and CSS that uses the function above.

Step 6: Use a Pre-built GPT Chat Widget (No-code)

For fast setup without coding:

Chatbase.co: Train GPT on your site’s content and embed with one line
Botpress: Open-source chat interface with GPT backend
Landbot or Tidio: GPT plug-in support for human-AI chat

These tools often give a code snippet like:

<script src="https://www.chatbase.co/embed.min.js" chatbotId="YOUR_ID" ></script>

Paste it inside the <body> tag of your portal.

Step 7: Customize the Experience

Context awareness: Train the bot on your website, documentation, or FAQs
Session memory: Store user state using browser cookies or Dataverse
User ID recognition: Use portal login data to personalize replies
Fallbacks: Redirect to human support if confidence is low

Step 8: Style and Brand the Assistant

Use your logo or icon
Change colors and fonts to match your brand
Make sure it is mobile-friendly and non-intrusive

Step 9: Security Considerations

Never expose API keys in client-side code
Use server-side functions or middleware to handle API calls securely
Sanitize user inputs to prevent misuse
Consider throttling or input length limits

Step 10: Monitor and Improve

Use telemetry (Application Insights, Clarity, or Google Analytics) to monitor usage
Check logs for common questions and improve prompt engineering
Regularly update knowledge base or custom instructions for better accuracy

Future Enhancements

Add voice input/output
Multilingual support
PDF or document parsing
Integration with SharePoint lists or Power BI for data answers
Trigger Power Automate flows based on user queries