# 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; it never changes anything. For: Pastor, Admin, Owner Canonical: https://giftwell.app/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 writes: it can't place, log, add or contact anyone, or write to Planning Center. Ask it to change something and it says where in GiftWell that is done. ## 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 before it answers, so there's nothing to press. In a large church it may not finish in one go: then it answers with what it has, reads the rest in the background, and tells you to ask again in a few minutes. If your church never approved Giving or Groups, it says plainly that an admin needs to reconnect Planning Center to approve them. It can also look at Planning Center live, read-only, for what GiftWell 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 GiftWell keeps private aren't named. ## 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 GiftWell: a number, a share, a short list of people, a chart. Each person it names links to their page in GiftWell, 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. - **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.