Admin AI Chat Assistant
The Admin AI Chat Assistant is a conversational tool built into the TimelyChurch admin dashboard. Powered by xAI Grok, it uses your real church data to answer questions, run queries, draft content, and take actions -- all through a natural chat interface.
Opening the Chat
- Look for the purple chat bubble icon in the bottom-right corner of any admin page.
- Click it to open the AI Assistant window.
- Type your question or request in the text field and press Enter (or click the send button).
The chat opens as a centered overlay panel. You can close it by clicking the X button, clicking outside the panel, or pressing the chat bubble again.
What You Can Ask
Church Data and Statistics
Ask questions about your people, events, groups, and announcements using natural language. The AI queries your live database to get current answers.
Example questions:
- "How many active members do we have?"
- "What's the average age of our members?"
- "Show me the gender breakdown of our congregation"
- "Who has birthdays in March?"
- "How many visitors joined in the last 6 months?"
- "List all youth ages 13 to 17"
- "How many people are in each group?"
The AI uses a database query tool behind the scenes, so you get real-time counts, averages, and lists -- not estimated or cached data.
Searching for People
- "Search for John Smith"
- "Show me all visitors"
- "Find people with membership status 'regular attender'"
Search results show names, membership status, active/inactive status, and contact information.
Searching for Events
- "What events do we have coming up?"
- "Find events next week"
- "Search for events with 'Easter' in the title"
Drafting Announcements
You can ask the AI to create an announcement for you:
- "Draft an announcement about our upcoming potluck dinner on March 15"
- "Help me write an announcement about Vacation Bible School registration"
The AI will prepare the announcement and show you a preview with the title, content, and category. You then have two options:
- Create -- saves the announcement as an inactive draft in your announcements list
- Cancel -- discards the draft
Important: Announcements created by the AI are always saved as drafts (inactive). You must go to the Announcements section to review, edit if needed, and publish.
Creating Events
- "Create an event for a youth retreat on April 20 from 9 AM to 5 PM at the community center"
- "Help me set up a women's ministry meeting for next Tuesday at 7 PM"
Like announcements, the AI shows a preview and creates the event as an inactive draft after your confirmation.
Updating Member Records
When someone's situation changes, you can ask the AI to update their record:
- "Mark John Smith as inactive -- he moved to another state"
- "Change Sarah Johnson's status from visitor to member"
The AI will:
- Look up the person
- Show you the proposed changes (current status versus new status)
- Wait for your confirmation before making any changes
Only administrators with full access permissions can update people records through the AI.
Conversation Features
Multi-Turn Conversations
The AI remembers what you discussed earlier in the conversation. You can ask follow-up questions naturally:
- You: "How many members do we have?"
- AI: "You have 245 active members."
- You: "How about just the ones under 30?"
- AI: (filters the previous query to show members under 30)
Conversation History
Click the clock icon in the chat header to view your recent conversations. You can:
- Browse past conversations with previews of what was discussed
- Click a conversation to reload it and continue where you left off
- Delete individual conversations
- Clear all conversation history
Conversations are saved locally in your browser and also on the server (last 20 messages are used for context).
Starting a New Chat
Click the "+" icon in the chat header to start a fresh conversation. Your previous conversation is automatically saved to your history.
Quick Actions
When the chat is empty, you will see suggested quick-action buttons:
- Upcoming Events -- asks about events coming up
- Member Stats -- asks for active member count
- Draft Announcement -- starts the announcement drafting flow
These are shortcuts to common questions. You can always type your own question instead.
Copying Responses
For longer AI responses (over 100 characters), a "Copy" button appears beneath the message. Click it to copy the text to your clipboard for use elsewhere.
Context Awareness
The AI is aware of which section of the admin dashboard you are working in. If you open the chat from the Events page, it knows you are likely working on events and can offer more relevant help. This module context includes:
- Announcements -- helps with announcement drafts and editing
- Events -- helps with event descriptions and planning
- Lessons -- helps create discussion questions and teaching content
- People -- helps with follow-up ideas and communication strategies
- Groups -- helps with group activities and discussion topics
- Volunteers -- helps with scheduling and appreciation ideas
- Sermons -- helps create summaries and discussion guides
- Communications -- helps draft emails and newsletters
Permission Levels
The AI respects your access level:
- Full Admin Access -- sees all people statistics, demographics, all groups, and all announcements (including non-public ones)
- Team/Group Leader Access -- sees only the people and groups assigned to them
- Limited Access -- sees only public information and basic group names
If you ask about data outside your permission scope, the AI will let you know it cannot access that information for your role.
Usage Limits
Each church has a daily request limit based on its plan. You can see your current usage and remaining requests in the chat or on the AI Settings page. The counter resets at midnight in your church's timezone.
Tip: Be specific in your questions. Instead of "Tell me about our church," try "How many new visitors did we have this month?" or "What events are scheduled for next week?" Specific questions get faster, more useful answers.
Related Articles
- AI Tools and Actions -- the six tools the admin chat can call (and the database query DSL)
- What the AI Knows -- exactly which data is visible at each permission level
- Troubleshooting AI -- what to do when the chat fails or hits a limit