Short answer
Tribal knowledge is know-how shared inside a group but unknown to outsiders, such as the unwritten rules and workarounds that new staff do not know. In a company it lives in people's heads, so when the people who hold it leave, the team can lose it.
Why it matters for a small team
In a company of five to fifty people, much of the knowledge sits with the founder or a few early hires: why a price was set, which customer gets priority, how a tool really works. Because it is rarely written down, every new hire has to ask someone.
How teams capture it
The plain fix is to write it down and turn informal know-how into documented company property. Mentoring and on-the-job training help pass it on, but they depend on the same people staying. Start with the questions people ask you most often and write each answer once, with an owner and a date.
Where an AI assistant fits
An assistant can only be as good as what is written. If the answers are still in people's heads, a bot will either not know or guess, which is why approved, written answers come first.
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Common questions
Not by itself. It becomes a risk when only a few people hold it and nothing is written down, because the team can lose it when those people leave.
Note the questions your team asks you for a week, then write the ten most common answers, each with an owner and a date.