This pattern involves clearly conveying what an AI model can and cannot do, including its knowledge boundaries, capabilities and limitations.
It is helpful to builds user trust, sets appropriate expectations, prevents misuse, and reduces frustration when the model fails or behaves unexpectedly.
How to use this pattern
Explicitly state model limitations: Show contextual cues for outdated knowledge or lack of real-time data. E.g., Claude states its knowledge cutoff when the question falls outside its knowledge domain
Provide fallbacks or escalation options when the model cannot provide a suitable output. E.g., Amazon Rufus when asked about something unrelated to shopping, says “it doesn’t have access to factual information and, I can only assists with shopping related questions and requests”
Make limitations visible in product marketing, onboarding, tooltips or response disclaimers.