What Data the AI Can Access
The TimelyChurch AI assistant uses your real church data to provide accurate, personalized responses. This article explains exactly what data the AI has access to, how it differs between admin and member contexts, and how your data is protected.
Admin AI Chat -- Full Data Access
When you use the Admin AI Chat, the assistant has access to the following data from your church's TimelyChurch account. The exact data it can see depends on your role and permissions.
People / Members (Full Admin Access)
The AI receives aggregate statistics about your congregation as part of every conversation:
- Total people count in your database
- Active people count
- Membership status breakdown -- how many members, regular attenders, and visitors you have
- Demographic statistics -- average age (overall and members-only), age distribution by group (Children, Youth, Young Adults, Adults, Middle Age, Seniors, Elderly), and gender breakdown
In addition, the AI can query your people database on demand using natural language. Queries it can run include:
- Counts -- "How many members?" "How many women under 40?"
- Averages -- "What is the average age of our youth?"
- Lists -- "Show me all visitors" "Who has birthdays in February?"
- Group by -- "Show me the age distribution" "Break down membership by status"
- Min/Max -- "Who is our youngest member?" "Who is the oldest?"
- Filters available -- membership status, gender, active/inactive, age range, email/phone availability, creation date, birth month, birth day
People (Team/Group Leader Access)
If your role has team-level access, the AI can only see:
- Total count of people in the groups you lead
- People data limited to members of your assigned groups
Events
The AI automatically knows about:
- Upcoming events (next 30 days) -- title, date, time, location, and description
- Recent past events (last 7 days) -- title and date
Through database queries, the AI can also search for events by:
- Date range
- Keyword in title or description
- Active/inactive status
- Public/private status
Announcements
The AI has access to:
- Active announcements -- title, category, content, and whether they are pinned
- Public vs. internal -- Full admins can see all announcements; other roles see only public ones
Through database queries, the AI can also:
- Count announcements by category or status
- List recent announcements
Groups and Classes
The AI knows about:
- Active groups -- name and member count
- Team-scoped groups -- if you have team-level access, only your assigned groups are visible
Through database queries, the AI can:
- Count total groups
- List groups with their member counts
Church Profile Information
The AI always has access to basic church information:
- Church name
- Denomination
- City and state
Admin AI Chat -- Actions the AI Can Take
Beyond reading data, the admin AI can perform actions on your behalf. All actions that modify data require your explicit confirmation.
| Action | What It Does | Safety Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Create Announcement | Drafts a new announcement | Created as inactive/draft; you must review and publish |
| Create Event | Drafts a new event | Created as inactive/draft; you must review and activate |
| Search Events | Finds events by date or keyword | Read-only, no changes |
| Search People | Finds people by name or status | Read-only, no changes |
| Update Person Status | Changes membership status or active flag | Shows preview of changes; requires confirmation; admin-only |
| Query Database | Runs read-only queries for counts, lists, averages | Read-only, cannot modify data |
Member AI Chat -- Limited Data Access
The member-facing chat has a deliberately restricted view of your data. It never sees any people, membership, or financial information -- it is limited to your church profile, public events, active announcements, and the AI Training Data you have published.
What Members Can See Through the Chat
- Church profile -- name, address, city/state/zip, phone, email, website
- Upcoming public events (next 60 days) -- only events marked public; title, date, time, location
- Active announcements -- title and a short content summary (any active, non-expired announcement)
- AI Training Data -- all active context entries you have added (FAQs, service times, beliefs, ministry descriptions)
Note about announcements: The member chat includes your active, non-expired announcements regardless of whether they are marked public or internal. If you have an announcement you do not want members to see through the chat, set it to inactive, give it an expiry date, or delete it.
What Members Cannot See
- People/member data of any kind
- Membership counts or demographics
- Inactive, expired, or draft announcements
- Inactive or private (non-public) events
- Group membership details
- Financial information
- Any admin-only data
AI Content Generation -- Data Access
When you use the AI Generate button on forms (for announcements, events, lessons, etc.), the AI has access to:
- Your church name
- Upcoming events and their details (for announcement and event description types)
- Any existing content in the form field you are generating for
- The title field value (if present on the form)
- The custom prompt you type in the generation input
This context helps the AI produce relevant content that references your actual church events and information.
How Personal Data Is Protected
TimelyChurch uses a data anonymization layer (app/Services/AI/AIDataAnonymizer.php) to protect personal information. Anonymization happens before any data leaves TimelyChurch, so the external xAI Grok API never sees real names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, or Social Security numbers.
What Gets Anonymized
When the AI queries people data, the following transformations happen before the request is sent over the network to xAI:
| Real Data | What Grok Sees |
|---|---|
| "John Smith" | [PERSON_123] |
| [email protected] | [EMAIL_REDACTED], [EMAIL_AVAILABLE], or [NO_EMAIL] |
| (555) 123-4567 | [PHONE_REDACTED], [PHONE_AVAILABLE], or [NO_PHONE] |
| 123 Main St | [ADDRESS_REDACTED] |
| Birthdate: 1985-03-14 | Month: March, Day: 14 (no year) |
| Age: 39 | Age range: "26-40 (Adult)" |
| Social Security numbers (e.g., 123-45-6789) | [SSN_REDACTED] |
SSN redaction runs on free-text fields too, using a regex pattern (\b\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}\b), so any stray identifier embedded in notes or descriptions is scrubbed before transmission.
What Is Not Anonymized
The following data types are considered safe and are sent without anonymization:
- Aggregate statistics (counts, averages, totals)
- Event titles, dates, times, and locations
- Announcement titles and content
- Group names and member counts
- Church profile information
- Your AI Training Data entries
How You See the Results
When the AI returns results that involve people:
- Your screen shows real names, real emails, and full details
- xAI Grok only ever received anonymized tokens
This is handled automatically. You do not need to do anything special -- the system anonymizes data on the way out and de-anonymizes it for your display.
Data the AI Never Has Access To
Regardless of your role, the AI never has access to:
- Financial records -- giving history, donation amounts, bank details
- Login credentials -- passwords, API keys, authentication tokens
- Private pastoral notes -- confidential counseling or care notes
- Data from other churches -- all queries are strictly scoped to your church
- System administration settings -- server configuration, platform settings
Tip: If you want the AI to know something specific about your church (like nursery availability or parking directions), add it as AI Training Data from Settings -> AI in your admin portal. You can categorize each entry as an FAQ, church policy, statement of faith, service times & location, ministry/program, or custom information. The AI can only answer questions about information it has been given access to.