AI-Assisted Session Setup: Configure Your Election with a Conversation
Most association administrators run one or two elections a year. That means re-learning session types, voting rules, and seat configurations every time. VoteAlly now lets you describe your meeting in plain language and get a fully configured election in seconds.
By Michael Becker, Founder of VoteAlly · Published June 14, 2026
AI-assisted session setup lets VoteAlly administrators describe their AGM, board election, or member vote in plain language. The AI generates a complete session configuration, including questions, voting rules, candidates, and scheduling. A separate readiness advisor reviews the configuration against best practices before launch. All AI processing uses Zero Data Retention: your data is never stored by AI providers or used for model training.
The setup problem
Setting up a voting session for an AGM involves a surprising number of decisions. Should it be a Live Meeting or a Scheduled Election? Which questions are motions and which are multi-candidate elections? What pass threshold applies: majority of cast, majority of eligible, or two-thirds? How many seats does the board election have? Should early voting be enabled?
Experienced administrators know these answers from memory. But many boards rotate members regularly, and the person setting up this year's AGM may not have done it before. The manual process works, but it is slow and easy to misconfigure, especially when your bylaws require specific voting rules like cumulative voting or ranked choice ballots.
Two new AI features for administrators
Setup Assistant
Describe your AGM, board election, or member vote in plain language. The AI configures your session: name, type, questions with the right voting rules, candidate lists, schedule, and early voting settings. Review the generated configuration, adjust anything, and save.
Readiness Advisor
Once your session is configured, ask the AI advisor questions about your setup. It reviews your configuration against best practices and surfaces potential issues before you go live, like missing candidates, mismatched voting rules, or scheduling gaps.
Both features are optional. Every session can still be configured manually, and the AI-generated configuration is always editable before saving.
What data goes to the AI (and what does not)
The AI only sees structural session metadata. Voter personal information is never included in any AI request.
Sent to the AI
- Session name, type, and schedule
- Question titles, voting rules, and seat counts
- Candidate names (sanitized and truncated)
- Pass thresholds and early voting settings
Never sent
- Voter emails, phone numbers, or member IDs
- Ballot choices or voting history
- Organization billing or payment information
- Admin account credentials
All text fields are HTML-stripped and length-truncated before being sent. The allowlist is enforced at the code level so that no additional fields can leak through, even if the data model changes.
Zero Data Retention: why it matters for elections
Election data is sensitive. Even session configuration can reveal organizational governance patterns, upcoming leadership changes, or contested issues. That is why VoteAlly processes all AI requests under Zero Data Retention (ZDR) agreements with every model provider.
Zero Data Retention guarantees
- AI providers do not store your prompts or responses
- Your data is not used to train AI models
- No session configuration persists outside of VoteAlly's own database
- All providers operate under contractual Zero Data Retention agreements
For more on how VoteAlly protects your data, see the security overview and privacy policy.
AI model providers
VoteAlly uses the Vercel AI Gateway to route requests to the best available model. The gateway supports multiple providers, and the active model may change over time as providers release improved versions. Current providers include:
xAI
Grok
Anthropic
Claude
OpenAI
GPT
Gemini
All providers are bound by ZDR agreements. The complete list of subprocessors is available on the subprocessors page.
Available on all plans
AI features are included in every VoteAlly plan, from Free through Enterprise. They do not affect the core voting experience, and sessions created with or without AI are identical once saved. Start with the Free plan to try it out.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to use the AI features?
No. AI-assisted setup and the readiness advisor are entirely optional. You can configure every session manually, exactly as before. The AI tools are there for administrators who want a faster starting point or a second opinion on their configuration.
Can the AI set up any type of voting session?
Yes. The AI understands Live Meeting sessions (AGMs, board meetings) and Scheduled Elections (multi-day voting windows). It can configure motions, multi-candidate elections, ranked choice voting, cumulative voting, weighted voting, and early voting. You always review and approve the generated configuration before saving.
Which AI model providers does VoteAlly use?
VoteAlly routes requests through the Vercel AI Gateway. Current providers include xAI (Grok), Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT), and Google (Gemini). The active provider may change as better models become available. All providers operate under Zero Data Retention agreements, so your data is never stored or used for training.
Related guides
Set up your next election in seconds
VoteAlly is free for up to 50 voters, and AI setup is included on every plan. Describe your meeting and let the AI handle the configuration. No credit card required.