Webinar Summary (Made by AI): AI, Church Websites, and Accessibility
Overview
The webinar, jointly organised by ECIC Network and WACC Europe, focused on how churches can responsibly and effectively use artificial intelligence (AI)—particularly chatbots and structured data—to improve digital presence, accessibility, and mission outreach. Two main presentations were followed by an in-depth discussion.
Presentation 1: AI Chatbots as Engines of User Insight
Speaker: Eeva Salonen, Development Lead, Helsinki Parish Union (Finland)
Context
- The Helsinki Parish Union serves 19 parishes, with over 300,000 members.
- The church website contains extensive information (events, services, locations), which many users find difficult to navigate.
- Human support is limited by office hours, language skills, and staff time.
Purpose of the AI Chatbot
The AI chatbot was introduced to:
- Help users find information easily and independently
- Operate 24/7 and support multiple languages
- Reduce routine enquiries so staff can focus on work requiring human presence
- Improve accessibility and consistency of service across parishes
How the Chatbot Works
- Users ask questions in natural language
- The bot draws answers from a curated knowledge base linked to the website
- A large language model (LLM) helps generate understandable responses
- The system does not require user identification and avoids collecting personal data
Usage and Impact
- Nearly 44,000 chatbot triggers and 8,500 conversations in one year
- Over 9,000 interactions in the most recent month alone
- The chatbot is still being trained and refined to improve answer quality
Key Insight
Salonen emphasized that every chatbot interaction is a piece of user insight:
- Users are not just searching for information, but for clarity, guidance, and direction
- Common questions relate to:
- Finding the right contact person
- Events and schedules
- Life events (baptisms, weddings, funerals)
- “Where do I start?” questions
- This data supports service design, helping the church improve websites, processes, and pastoral accessibility based on real user needs rather than assumptions
Main conclusion:
AI chatbots are not merely service tools; they function as continuous sources of human insight that help churches redesign both digital and human services.
Presentation 2: Structured Data as an AI Strategy for Churches
Speaker: Ralf Peter Reimann, Internet Commissioner, Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (Germany)
Theological Framing
Reimann began with the Barmen Theological Declaration (1934), emphasizing that the Gospel is meant for all people. In the age of AI, this means ensuring Christian presence across all digital and AI-driven channels, not only websites or social media.
How AI Changes Search and Visibility
- AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) are increasingly replacing traditional search
- AI typically provides one synthesized answer, not a list of links
- Google and other platforms now show AI-generated overviews, sharply reducing clicks to websites
Implications for Churches
- Churches risk becoming invisible if their information is:
- Unstructured
- Locked in PDFs or images
- Poorly tagged or inconsistent
- AI can only use what it can read, interpret, and trust
Real-World Problem
Reimann demonstrated examples where:
- Church bulletins uploaded as images cannot be indexed by search engines or read by screen readers
- Information is inaccessible to AI systems and to people with disabilities
The Project: Structured Location and Event Data
A nationwide project (supported by the EKD) is underway to:
- Centralize, standardize, and validate church data
- Create location-specific landing pages for every city and municipality
- Include:
- Church buildings
- Services and events
- Local information
- Embed schema.org structured data (JSON-LD) so machines can reliably interpret content
Goals and Vision
- Up to 750,000 structured entities (events, services, buildings)
- Improved discoverability for both humans and AI systems
- Example vision:
A person can ask AI, “Where can I go to a Christmas service with children in Cologne?” and receive an accurate, trustworthy answer.
Main conclusion:
For churches, data quality is mission-critical. Structured, standardized, and accessible data is essential for visibility, accessibility, and relevance in an AI-driven world.
Discussion Highlights
Accessibility and Inclusion
- Structured data and readable formats are essential for:
- People with disabilities
- Those unable to attend church physically
- Users relying on assistive technologies and AI-based interfaces
- AI chatbots provide inclusive, conversational access to information
Ethics, Privacy, and Data Protection
- Helsinki’s chatbot avoids collecting personal data
- Clear procedures are in place if users voluntarily share sensitive information
- Procurement and hosting decisions are made with strict data protection standards
- The German structured-data project uses public, non-sensitive information only
Chatbots and Pastoral Care
- Chatbots do not replace pastors
- They guide users to the right parish, person, or next step
- Spiritual questions are addressed through:
- Carefully designed, human-written responses
- Clear pathways to human contact
Shifting Metrics and Mindsets
- Website traffic alone is no longer the key metric
- New indicators include:
- AI citations
- Engagement and retention
- Discoverability across platforms
- Churches need a mindset shift: content is created not only “for our website”, but for multiple systems and audiences
Overall Key Takeaways
- AI can significantly improve accessibility, clarity, and reach of church services
- Chatbots provide both service and insight
- Structured data is foundational for digital mission in the AI era
- Ethical use, transparency, and human-centered design are essential
- AI is not a goal in itself, but a tool to support the church’s core mission