# Ask AI > A chat at the bottom right of every screen that answers questions about your church from your real list, on your church's own AI key. Pastors, admins and the owner only. It reads, and it can suggest a change that happens only when you press Do it. For: Pastor, Admin, Owner Canonical: https://emmauos.com/docs/ask-ai ![Ask AI: a question about giving answered as two shares and a chart, with the steps it read.](/docs-img/ask-ai.png) ## Opening it Press the round button at the bottom right of any screen, or press ⌘K (Ctrl+K) and choose **Ask AI**. Whatever you typed in the command menu is asked straight away, in a new chat. On a phone it fills the screen; on a computer it floats over the page, so you can open a person it names and keep the chat beside you. It runs on your church's own AI key (OpenRouter, OpenAI or Anthropic), the same one as [AI briefs](/docs/ai-briefs). Until an admin adds a key, the panel says so and links admins to it. It is off in the demo church. ## Who can use it Pastors, admins and the owner. Leaders and viewers don't see the button, and the server refuses their requests even if they find the address. Inside, it can only use the reads your own role can: a pastor's chat can't open what only an admin can, such as editing the pathway. It never changes anything by itself. Ask it to log a conversation, move someone along the follow-up list, add a timeline line, choose who follows up, place someone, update a placement or an introduction, add a newcomer, or prepare a walk, and it shows a card with **Do it** and **Not now**. Nothing happens until you press Do it, and then it's made with your own role, the same as the screen would. Each card works once, and your chat keeps what you chose. It never contacts anyone or writes to Planning Center, and it can't delete anything or change your church's setup. ## What it can answer Anything the read-only [agent tools](/docs/ai-agents) cover: who is waiting, gifts across the church, serving teams and gaps, roles and who could grow into them, the pathway, introductions and walks. From Planning Center it can also compare gifts with what was read there: - **Giving**, as shares only. "People who lead with Giving are 21% of the people and 45% of the giving." It never says what anyone gave, whether a named person gave, or any amount. - **Group leaders** against teaching, shepherding or leadership gifts, and which groups each person leads. - **Serving teams, check-ins and ministry leaders**, the same way. Giving and groups are read from Planning Center every night. If an answer needs something that hasn't been read yet, Ask AI reads it from Planning Center right there in the chat, so there's nothing to press. A long giving history takes a little longer: the chat shows how many gifts it has read and about how long is left, then answers your question on its own when the read is done. If Planning Center doesn't answer, Ask says so plainly and tries again next time. If your church never approved Giving or Groups, it says an admin needs to reconnect Planning Center to approve them. If Giving turns down the person who connected Planning Center, Ask says so: someone with Administrator or Bookkeeper access in Planning Center Giving needs to reconnect. It can also look at Planning Center live, read-only, for what EmmauOS doesn't keep: your groups and who is in one, upcoming service plans and who is scheduled, what is still needed, upcoming events and open sign-ups. It never reads giving or contact details this way, and people EmmauOS keeps private aren't named. Answers show their figures as cards and charts, every person named links to their page, and people show with their faces. Someone who took the assessment more than once counts as one person, shown by their newest result. Drag the messages left (or swipe left with two fingers on a trackpad) to see when each was sent. **Pictures.** Attach screenshots with the picture button beside your question, or paste them, up to 10 at a time, such as every slide of an Instagram post. Ask reads each one for that question and lists every figure it shows, never guessing one that isn't there. Pictures are never kept: the chat remembers only how many there were and what Ask said about them. Your AI model must be able to read pictures (Claude models can). When something can't be done, Ask can offer a card to tell the EmmauOS team, and nothing is sent until you press **Do it**. ## Finding your way Ask "where do I invite a leader?" or "how does walking with work?" and it answers with a link to the help page or the screen, from the screens your role can open. It won't name a button or screen that isn't there. Answers use the same cards as the rest of EmmauOS: a number, a share, a short list of people, a chart. Each person it names links to their page in EmmauOS, never to an email address. ## The safeguards - **Your role, no more.** The chat is given only the reads your role can use. Writes are never offered. - **Changes wait for you.** A suggested change is only a card until you press Do it. Only the person whose chat it is can press it, and only if their role can still make that change. Each one is in the audit log. - **Read-only, live or not.** Live Planning Center reads only look (groups, plans, events, sign-ups). Giving is never read live, and nothing is ever written to Planning Center. - **Giving is aggregate.** A share is withheld when fewer than 3 people are on either side. A comparison for a gift you name is made one gift at a time and rounded to the nearest 5 points, so two answers can't be subtracted to find one person's giving. - **The same privacy rules as agents.** What a person wrote, their faith story and staff notes stay behind the [sensitive-field rules](/docs/privacy-promises). People who didn't share with the pastoral team aren't named, and anyone who may be under 18 isn't described. - **Counted, not read.** The activity log keeps a fingerprint of each question, its length and which reads ran, never the words. Each person has a daily limit. - **It can be wrong.** Check a name or number before you act on it. ## Your chats ![Your chats: search, open or delete a past chat.](/docs-img/ask-ai-chats.png) Each chat is saved for you alone, encrypted. Nobody else on the team can see it, an admin or the owner included. The history button lists your chats, newest first; search finds words in the title or anywhere in the chat. Open one to carry on where you left off, or delete it. **New chat** starts fresh. A chat is erased 90 days after its last message. Your chats download as a file from [Import & export](/docs/import-and-export), and only yours.