Christians more likely than general public to use AI at work and in personal lives

Christians are on the leading of adopting artificial intelligence (AI), a recent Barna Group survey found. Not only are they using AI in their professional and personal lives more than most Americans, but they also would trust it with their spiritual growth.

About 44 percent of Christians said they use AI “very often” or “often” in their personal lives. This share is 13 percentage points higher than the 31 percent of U.S. adults overall who fall in the category of AI engagement. Only 29 percent of non-practicing Christians reported the same engagement. Four in 10 Christians reported using the technology often, compared with just 26 percent of U.S. adults nationwide.

Although Christians already use AI more than their pastors, they still want their guidance on engaging with the technology. However, only around 12 percent of pastors feel prepared to give guidance on using AI.

Only 16 percent of pastors said they use AI “often” personally, and 5 percent said they engage AI for personal matters “very often.” Some 45 percent said they used AI “not very much” or “not at all.” About one-third use AI only “sometimes.” Even for work purposes, 24 percent of pastors said they used the technology very often, compared with 39 percent of practicing Christians.

“Ask people yes-or-no whether they use AI, and the average pastor and the average American look about the same,” said Daniel Copeland, vice president of research for Barna. “It’s frequency of use where the difference actually shows up.”

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Nearly half of practicing Christians said they would trust the technology with their spiritual growth. However, the data shows that spiritual growth isn’t the top priority for engagement.

Most Christians use AI for learning, getting advice or improving their writing much more than for interpreting scripture or spiritual guidance.

Barna research from earlier this year suggests that about one-third of practicing American Christians said the spiritual advice they get from artificial intelligence is just as good as that from a pastor, with practicing Christians more likely to agree with this premise than non-practicing Christians and non-Christians.

–Lee Hartman | Metro Voice

PHOTO: AI generated with Gemini