An artifact is something the assistant produced that was worth keeping: a table, a comparison, a set of numbers, a plan.
They exist because the alternative is scrolling back through a conversation from three weeks ago to find the one answer you actually wanted, which is the point at which most people give up and ask again.
The kinds
Metrics and tables — figures pulled together in one place.
Comparisons — two things set against each other.
Affordability — whether the business can carry something.
Action lists and plans — what to do, in order.
Charts and reports, and anything that does not fit the rest.
Finding one again
Artifacts are searchable and can be filtered by kind. Anything used often can be pinned, which is worth doing for the two or three you return to rather than for everything.
They can also be copied out, which is usually how one ends up in an email to an accountant or a lender.
The thing to remember about them
An artifact is a snapshot, not a live view. The numbers in it were true when it was made.
That is exactly what you want for a record of a decision — what did we think in March, and on what basis — and exactly what you do not want if you are about to act on it today. For a current figure, ask again or go to the page it came from.
Treating an old artifact as current is the one way this feature can mislead, and it is worth checking the date before acting on one.