What is an AI family assistant? Boundaries, privacy and examples
An AI family assistant is software that turns the everyday paperwork of running a household - a school email, a schedule PDF, a photo of a flyer - into calendar events, tasks and lists, without a parent retyping any of it. Plannie's Assistant does this through a private family inbox and chat, only ever acting on what it's explicitly given, with every action visible to the whole household.
What does an AI family assistant actually do?
Strip away the marketing language and an AI family assistant has one job: take the unstructured paperwork of family life - an email from school, a PDF schedule, a photo of a flyer on the fridge - and turn it into something the calendar already understands, without a parent doing the data entry by hand.
Inputs: what you can hand it
Plannie’s Assistant works from what the household actually gives it, nothing more:
- The family inbox. Every household gets its own private email address (Settings → General). Forward an invite, a PDF schedule or a photo of a flyer, and it’s read and filed under the right person and time.
- Chat. Ask it directly - “what’s for dinner this week?”, “is everyone free Saturday?” - and it answers from the household’s own calendar, meals and lists.
- Recipe links, which feed the weekly meal-planning system rather than the calendar directly.
Outputs: what it can create
Events, tasks, list items and planned meals - the same objects a person would create by hand, attributed the same way. It resolves obvious clashes and can re-plan around a change, but it works inside the household’s existing calendar and lists rather than replacing them.
Permissions and boundaries
An assistant that can write to a family calendar needs limits that are visible, not just implied:
- Scoped access. The Assistant only sees what’s forwarded to the family inbox or asked in chat - it doesn’t have standing access to a parent’s personal email or files.
- Attribution, always. Every item the Assistant creates shows a sparkle badge in the app and a named entry in the activity feed - any family member can see exactly what it did and undo it.
- Household control. Connected calendars and any agent API access can be revoked at any time from Settings, immediately cutting off what the Assistant (or a connected third-party agent) can see.
What it can’t do
The Assistant reads what it’s given - it doesn’t monitor accounts it hasn’t been granted access to, and it doesn’t make purchases or send messages on a family’s behalf. When it can’t confidently resolve something (an ambiguous date, an unclear assignee), it leaves it for a person rather than guessing silently.
For developers and power users
Beyond the built-in Assistant, developers can connect their own agents to Plannie over MCP or the open REST API, using the same scoped, attributed model - a key created in Settings → Integrations, limited to exactly the scopes it needs.
Frequently asked
Does the Assistant read my personal email inbox?+
No. Each household gets its own dedicated Plannie email address - nothing is read unless it's explicitly forwarded to that address.
Can I see what the Assistant has changed?+
Yes. Every event, task or list item the Assistant creates carries a sparkle badge and an entry in the household's activity feed, attributed by name, so nothing happens invisibly.