AI Resilience Report forReligious Workers, All Other

Right now, AI is mostly augmenting religious workers rather than replacing them — meaning it helps with behind-the-scenes tasks so people can focus on the human parts of the job. According to a Barna Group survey of U.S. Protestant pastors, most pastors are already using AI in ministry — only 13 percent say they don't use it at all — with brainstorming, biblical research, graphic design and other behind-the-scenes work leading the way. In chaplaincy, similar patterns show up: a U.S. Navy program called CHAPS Direct ^[1] uses Microsoft Forms, Bookings, Lists, and Power BI to streamline intake and scheduling, and its designer stresses that this use of artificial intelligence does not seek to digitize care but to make it smarter, allowing chaplains to focus on what they do best—talking about what matters, to whom it matters, when it matters.

Researchers studying pastoral care agree the "core" work stays human: eighteen chaplains recruited to build AI chatbots mostly expressed limitations of chatbots' ability to support everyday well-being, with themes around Listening, Connecting, Carrying, and Wanting resonating with the idea of "attunement" — a relational quality current AI cannot provide, according to a 2026 CHI Conference paper ^[2].

Adoption for admin, sermon prep, and communications is moving quickly because the tools are cheap, widely available, and save huge amounts of time — the Religious Education Association's 2025 "Navigating Humanity" meeting ^[3] noted that digital technology has not only revolutionized how we learn but has also sparked critical inquiries into the nature of humanity itself, as educators grapple with the integration of AI into pedagogical practices. But adoption for spiritual care itself is slower for ethical and theological reasons. Barna reports that 83 percent of church leaders are concerned about data privacy, 51 percent worry about plagiarism or integrity in message preparation, and nearly half (49%) are concerned about the potential loss of authenticity in preaching or teaching, and only 5 percent of churches currently have AI guidelines.

Top religious leaders are pushing back too: Pope Leo XIV told priests ^[4] that "to give a homily is to share faith," and AI "will never be able to share faith". If you're drawn to this career, the good news is that empathy, presence, and moral wisdom — the skills at the heart of the job — are exactly the ones AI can't copy.