AI Live Interpretation for Sacrament Meetings FAQ

< AI Live Interpretation for Sacrament Meetings Pilot

We’re piloting AI live interpretation in nine areas worldwide so attendees can read and/or hear sacrament meetings in their own language when the spoken language differs. We’ve tested three solutions: Zoom, Wordly, and Verbum (by OneMeta). The goal is to evaluate quality, feasibility, cost, security/privacy, and member experience—not to implement yet.

Are you implementing this? What’s the timeline?

Not yet. We are still in the pilot and evaluation phase. Before implementation can happen, several things must occur:

· Finish collecting test data and expert evaluations.

· Secure funding approval.

· Complete vendor contracts and licensing.

· Pass privacy, security, and accessibility reviews.

· Plan for training, support, and rollout logistics.

If everything goes smoothly, a recommendation could be finalized in the next three months. Funding decision might come mid next year. A limited rollout could follow, but full implementation (if approved) would realistically take 12–18 months from the end of evaluation.

Can our unit/area join the pilot now?

No—we have limited number of hours/licenses we have purchased for the pilot and are at the tail end of testing, focused on pre-selected units/languages.

Can we implement our own solution locally?

We maintain a list of Area-led experiments to keep track of what local Areas are learning from their own piloting.

If you test your own solutions with the proper approvals in your Areas, you do so with your own budget and at your own risk. Be aware we may later ask you to sunset local solutions in favor of a Church-approved enterprise solution.

What about rapidly changing tech (e.g., new features)?

The space is moving fast. We have tentative agreements to test new offerings from larger vendors as they release. Zoom, for example, has upcoming features (e.g., AI voices, finer pronunciation control) we may include in additional testing. This could extend timelines to ensure we don’t roll out something just before a significantly better option arrives.

Will this support one-on-one or small groups (Sunday School, interviews, refugee services, missionary lessons)?

Not yet. The current scope is sacrament meetings only. We plan to explore small-group/one-on-one scenarios later, but that’s outside this pilot and our current bandwidth.