New Barna Data: Practicing Christians are Adopting AI Rapidly

Practicing Christians are outpacing nearly every population segment on AI adoption, including pastors, according to Barna’s newest research on faith and AI. 

Forty-four percent of practicing Christians say they use AI “very often” or “often” in their personal lives, compared to 31 percent of U.S. adults overall and 29 percent of non-practicing Christians. The same pattern holds at work: 39 percent of practicing Christians use AI often or very often on the job, versus 26 percent of U.S. adults nationally.

The distance between practicing Christians and pastors, who were surveyed in a separate study, is wider still. Just 16 percent of pastors say they use AI “often” personally, and “very often” barely registers as its own share of the data. One-third of the pastors say they use it only “sometimes,” and 45 percent say “not very much” or “not at all.” At work, pastors report using AI often or very often at a rate of 24 percent, well behind the 39 percent of practicing Christians who say the same.

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

That contrast is harder to explain than it looks. “Pastors understand that AI is out there, but they’re not immersed in it the way their engaged congregants may be,” Copeland says. “The danger for pastors is underestimating just how normal AI is for the people around them. For most practicing Christians, AI isn’t for occasional use. It’s already woven into how they work, learn and make decisions.”

What They’re Actually Using AI For

What are practicing Christians actually asking AI to do? Mostly, everyday tasks: look something up, learn how to complete a task, get advice on a decision, catch up on the news, sharpen a piece of writing. Questions tied directly to faith, like interpreting scripture or seeking spiritual guidance, show up much further down the list.

That doesn’t mean AI has no place in people’s spiritual lives. Barna asked practicing Christians whether they’d trust AI with something as significant as their own spiritual growth, and nearly half said yes. But only about one-third of practicing Christians say they’ve turned to AI for spiritual guidance or Bible-related questions in the past month. Even so, one in three say they want guidance from their own pastor on navigating AI, though just 12 percent of pastors feel ready to give it.

Pastors Don’t Need to Become AI Experts

Where does that leave church leaders, when one-third of practicing Christians want their pastor’s perspective on AI yet most pastors don’t yet feel prepared to give it? Do pastors need to become technology experts to keep up with their congregants? According to Copeland, “The better move is for pastors to double down on what they already do well: teaching people how to engage scripture, building real relationships, making space for analog discipleship. That’s what people can lean on when AI gives them an answer that’s incomplete, misleading or just wrong.”

This does call for a new way of thinking about AI, a shift in mindset more than a shift in workload. The questions people already bring to AI, about scripture, relationships, their own struggles, often surface before they ever reach a pastor. Christian leaders who pay attention gain a clearer view of where people are stuck, and one more reason to keep showing up in person for exactly those moments.

Barna’s Faith & AI research explores how AI is shaping people’s faith today. Produced in partnership with Gloo, this research is part of our multi-year State of the Church initiative.