Venue & Settings
AI settings and safety
Control AI reply authority, voice, knowledge, consent, emergency pauses, Sparks and safety from one settings journey.
Last updated 16 July 2026
TL;DR
- Open Settings > AI settings on web.
- Set SMS and Instagram authority to Off, Draft or Auto-send, with per-intent rules available inside the AI settings journey.
- Manage the shared persona, avoid list, AI disclosure and Business Memory under Voice & knowledge.
- Owners can pause only systems that are currently sending customer messages or taking customer-facing action.
- Billing owns top-ups and detailed usage. Inbox owns conversation work. Activity owns durable attention items. The audit log owns immutable history.
AI settings is a compact control centre for what OpenChair may write, reply to, or do for a venue. It is not an operational Inbox, Activity feed, billing screen or list of every feature that happens to use AI.
Where to find it, web: Settings > AI settings.
Mobile: There is no dedicated mobile AI settings page in this release.
Page structure
The page presents controls in this order:
- Action required, only when a setup or continuity issue needs attention.
- Automated customer actions, including the Owner emergency-pause action.
- Voice & knowledge.
- Customer messages & bookings.
- Usage & history.
Action required
Each unresolved condition appears once and links to its actual owner. For example, a missing AI disclosure opens Voice & knowledge, a disconnected Instagram account opens Communications, and genuinely low Sparks open Billing.
Healthy venues do not see an empty Action required section.
Voice & knowledge
Voice & knowledge owns:
- the writing persona;
- words and phrases OpenChair should avoid;
- the AI disclosure suffix; and
- customer-safe and internal Business Memory.
The old web Brand Voice URL redirects to this canonical settings page. Existing mobile Brand Voice behaviour is unchanged.
Customer messages & bookings
AI settings controls AI authority. Communications continues to own channel connection, provisioning, delivery and quiet hours.
| Control | Authority and owner |
|---|---|
| SMS AI replies | Owner or Manager can choose Off, Draft or Auto-send. |
| Instagram AI replies | Exact Owner can choose Off, Draft or Auto-send when Instagram is connected. Connection remains in Communications. |
| Booking conversations | Exact Owner controls booking enquiry drafts and shipped operator-reviewed booking-action modes. |
When different intents use different authority, the page shows Mixed. Choosing Auto-send reviews the affected intents, AI disclosure state and Spark use before saving. Safety-limited general replies remain Draft.
Inbox remains the place to review, approve, reject, take over or resume a specific customer conversation.
Style Preview setup and photo-processing acknowledgement stay inside the Style Preview workflow, where they are needed. AI settings does not duplicate that feature as a status panel.
Sparks, Billing and history
Available Sparks are the non-negative included Sparks remaining plus the wallet balance, at one Spark per cent. Included Sparks are used first. The wallet is the funding source used after included Sparks.
Auto top-up is shown as information only. An enabled flag by itself does not prove that a future top-up will succeed.
AI settings provides a compact summary and links out:
- Billing owns wallet top-ups, invoices and detailed usage.
- Audit log owns the immutable AI settings and safety trail.
- Activity owns durable exceptions or attention items. Opening AI settings does not create, resolve or duplicate Activity records.
Emergency pause and recovery
Only the exact venue Owner can use Pause automated customer messages and actions.
The confirmation lists only systems that are currently sending customer messages or taking customer-facing action. Depending on the venue state, it can include SMS AI replies, Instagram AI replies, AI booking actions, Smart reconnect or automated waitlist recovery.
Before confirming, the sheet also explains what remains available:
- Inbox replies and staff review;
- staff-only drafting tools;
- channel connections and delivery settings; and
- saved Voice & knowledge.
Cancel closes the sheet without a mutation. After confirmation, every selected system reports its own success or failure, so a partial result remains visible and recoverable.
Clearing an emergency pause
SMS, Instagram and booking actions have persisted kill switches. Clear pause removes only the selected kill switch:
- SMS and Instagram reply modes remain Draft until an authorised user deliberately changes them.
- Booking-action modes are not reconstructed or overwritten by recovery.
Smart reconnect and waitlist auto-offer do not store an AI-settings emergency-pause marker. Pausing changes them to their existing off or manual state, so recovery links to Automations or Waitlist settings for a deliberate new choice. AI settings does not invent or restore a previous mode.
Every pause and recovery request is venue-scoped, exact-Owner authorised and written to the AI audit trail with per-system results.
Roles and plans
The destination is available to Owners and Managers on every plan. Feature-level PRO and setup gates still apply.
| Role | Access |
|---|---|
| Owner | Can manage all controls allowed by the venue's plan and setup, including exact-Owner consent, Instagram, booking and emergency-pause controls. |
| Manager | Can view the page, edit Voice & knowledge and SMS AI controls, and sees exact-Owner controls as Owner managed. |
| Team member | Cannot open this Settings destination. Operational conversation access continues to follow Inbox permissions. |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| Instagram authority is read-only | Confirm PRO access and connect Instagram in Settings > Instagram. Only the exact Owner can change its AI authority. |
| Auto-send is unavailable after recovery | Clearing an emergency pause does not restore prior Auto-send modes. Review the channel rules and choose authority deliberately. |
| The pause action says there is nothing to pause | No supported system is currently auto-sending or taking customer-facing action. Existing emergency pauses can still be reviewed and cleared. |
| A pause result failed | Successful systems remain paused. Retry or recover the failed system separately; the result list is not erased. |
| Available Sparks look low | Review included Sparks and wallet funding in Billing. Auto top-up being enabled is not a guarantee of readiness. |
Related articles
Common questions
- What does AI settings control?
- AI settings controls what OpenChair may draft, send or do through supported customer channels, plus the shared Voice & knowledge used when it writes.
- How do I pause automated customer messages and actions?
- Open Settings > AI settings, choose Pause automated customer messages and actions, review the active affected systems, then confirm the selected systems.
- Does clearing a pause restore Auto-send?
- No. Clearing an SMS or Instagram emergency pause leaves the reply modes at Draft. Choose Auto-send again only after reviewing the rules.
- Who can change AI settings?
- Owners can manage every authorised control. Managers can manage Voice & knowledge and SMS AI settings, while exact-Owner controls remain read-only.