Short answer
A knowledge base is an organized collection of answers and how-to information that people, or an AI assistant, can search to solve a question without asking someone. For a small team it works only if each answer has an owner, a date it was last confirmed, and a title written as the question people ask.
What goes in one
Policies, how things are done, decisions and the reasons for them, and answers to questions people keep asking. If a page does not answer a question someone really asked, it does not belong.
Why they go stale
Nobody owns them, nothing tells you when to check them, and old versions stay beside new ones. An outdated page does more harm than a missing one, because people trust it and act on it.
Small team version
Start with ten answers to the questions asked most this week. Give each one owner, a last-confirmed date and a check-again date, and delete the old version when a rule changes.
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Common questions
A wiki is one way to build a knowledge base. What makes either useful is the same: real questions as titles, one owner per page, and dates.
No. A shared document works if every page has an owner and a date. The habits matter more than the tool.