Every second church in the U.S. now uses AI for sermons

Illustrative image of artificial intelligence. Photo: monitorbank

Approximately 45% of religious communities in the United States are actively using artificial intelligence in their activities, including sermon preparation, according to a study by the Pushpay platform.

Churches are increasingly employing AI to handle practical tasks such as designing posters and presentations, managing social media, and writing educational programs for parish schools. The research reveals that currently, 18% of U.S. churches deliver sermons written by AI.

According to the study, 70% of clergy report an increase in donations due to the implementation of digital technologies, and 52% have increased their IT budgets this year.

A topic of growing interest among congregations is the use of cryptocurrency in church. While only 10% currently accept Bitcoin as a donation method, 39% of religious leaders plan to introduce crypto payments within the next two to three years.

Over the past year, AI use in churches has grown by 80%. However, 63% of religious leaders remain strongly opposed to delegating the task of preaching to neural networks.

“AI is like a microphone: it amplifies the voice, but doesn’t replace living faith,” summarized Pushpay CEO Kenny Wyatt.

This trend is not limited to the U.S. In Finland, St. Paul’s Church held a fully AI-generated service with neural network-created images of Christ and Satan. In India, bots help the faithful understand the meaning of religious rituals, while in Germany, virtual confession booths using speech recognition algorithms are being tested.

Experts estimate that by 2026, 60% of American religious communities will be using such technologies.

Earlier, it was reported that an AI conducted a church service in a Lutheran church in Finland.

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