Starting honestly
Some churches have strong concerns about AI, whether theological, ethical, or practical. We respect that, and we don't think it requires justification. If you've landed on this page because you want to understand what role AI plays in Wethr before trusting us with your congregation's data, good. That's the right instinct.
This page isn't a sales pitch for AI. It's a plain-language description of where we use it, where we've drawn hard lines, and why. If anything here gives you pause, we'd rather hear about it than have you guess at our intentions.
AI is being layered into software products faster than most people can evaluate it. It's reasonable to want to know whether a platform you use with your congregation has clear limits, and to hold us accountable to them.
Where we use AI
AI plays two roles at Wethr: as a development tool for our team, and as an optional productivity layer in the app itself. These are different, and we want to be clear about both.
Internal: how we build Wethr
Our engineering and content teams use AI tools to work more efficiently. This is AI as a productivity layer for us, not a feature we expose to you.
In the app: optional features only
A small number of features in Wethr use AI to help admins and leaders work more efficiently. These are always optional, always disclosed, and never touch pastoral, personal, or congregational guidance.
| Feature area | What AI does | What a person does | Opt-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduling suggestions | Suggests volunteers based on availability, frequency history, and role fit | Leader reviews every suggestion and makes the final assignment | Available |
| Service plan templates | Offers a suggested block structure based on past services | Admin edits freely before saving. The template is a starting point, not a plan | Available |
| Reminder copy suggestions | Drafts a suggested reminder message for volunteer assignments | Leader reads, edits, and approves before any message is sent | Available |
| Smart search | Interprets natural-language queries in the directory (e.g., "active volunteers who served last month") | Results are shown as a list. No action taken automatically | Available |
Anywhere AI is involved in generating a suggestion, draft, or result in the app, it's clearly labelled with an indicator that identifies it as AI-assisted. We don't present AI output as a neutral system result.
What AI never does in Wethr
These are not aspirational guidelines. They are hard limits written into how Wethr is built and operated. They won't change based on what becomes technically possible or commercially convenient.
| AI is used for this | AI is never used for this |
|---|---|
| Suggesting who to schedule for a service role | Generating pastoral advice, spiritual guidance, or counselling language |
| Drafting a volunteer reminder message for a leader to review | Sending any message to a church member without explicit human approval |
| Suggesting a service block structure based on past plans | Writing sermon content, prayers, liturgy, or service elements |
| Interpreting a natural-language search query in the directory | Making decisions about people (assignments, removals, or status changes) automatically |
| Summarising scheduling patterns for leader reporting | Generating personalised communication on behalf of a pastor or leader |
| Helping us write and refine internal documentation | Analysing or profiling congregation members based on their data |
The connection between a pastor and their congregation is built on trust, care, and human presence. We will never build features that simulate, automate, or substitute for that relationship, regardless of how plausible the technology makes it seem.
Human review
Wherever AI generates content that will be seen or acted upon by your team or by members of your congregation, a human reviews it first. This isn't just a checkbox. It's a structural requirement in how our AI-assisted features are designed.
This applies to every AI-assisted workflow in the app. There is no path from AI output to church member that does not pass through a deliberate human decision.
When an AI draft or suggestion appears in the interface, it's clearly labelled. The person reviewing it always knows whether they're looking at something AI-generated or something written by a colleague.
Opt-out policy
Every AI-powered feature in Wethr can be disabled, and disabling it does not reduce your access to any other part of the platform. No core function of Wethr depends on AI.
The directory, scheduling, Order of Service, team management, and communications all work in full without any AI involvement. AI features are enhancements. They're never the only path to completing a task.
Opt-out controls are accessible to Super Admins and Staff Admins from the Settings panel. Changes take effect immediately and can be reversed at any time.
Your data & AI
How your congregation's data interacts with AI systems (or doesn't) is a fair question. Here's the full picture.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Is congregation data used to train AI models? | No. Wethr does not share your directory, scheduling, or any congregation data with AI model providers for training purposes. |
| When AI features are used in the app, what data is sent to an AI provider? | Only the minimum data required for the specific feature. For example, a scheduling suggestion may send volunteer availability and role fit data. Personal contact details, household information, and member notes are never included. |
| Which AI providers does Wethr use? | We will publish this specifically in our Security page and keep it current. Any provider used is subject to a data processing agreement that prohibits training on customer data. |
| If I opt out of AI features, does any data still reach AI providers? | No. Opt-out is a complete cutoff. If AI features are disabled for your church, none of your data is sent to AI systems. Not even anonymized or aggregated data. |
| Can Wethr staff use our data to prompt AI tools internally? | No. Our internal AI usage policy prohibits Wethr team members from entering customer data into general-purpose AI tools. Any internal AI use involving customer data would require explicit consent and a specific data processing agreement. |
Our posture
Beyond the specific policies above, these are the principles that guide how we think about AI at Wethr. Not legal commitments, but the convictions that shape our decisions.
Let's talk about it
If anything on this page raises a question or a "but what about..." we want to hear it. This isn't a topic we're protective about. The right answer for your church should come from a real conversation, not a policy document.
We're especially interested in hearing from churches that have governance or policy positions on AI, whether from a theological perspective, a data stewardship perspective, or just a practical one. If you've thought carefully about this and want to compare notes, that conversation is useful to us.
Email hello@wethr.co with your questions, concerns, or pushback. We read every message and respond personally. If you're evaluating Wethr and AI is a factor, we'd rather talk you through it than have you decide from this page alone.
Whenever a new AI-assisted feature ships, this page is updated before or alongside the release, not after. The table in Section 2 is the authoritative list of where AI is used in the product.