TIME Magazine named The Architects of AI as the Person of the Year in 2025, recognising the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) toward what some describe as artificial general intelligence, machines that could rival human thinking. Whether or not those predictions materialise, one reality is already clear: AI is no longer a future problem. It is shaping our everyday lives right now.
AI is shaping our everyday lives right now.
We already live in a world formed by invisible algorithms, shaping what we see, what we desire, and how we relate. AI intensifies this formation. It offers instant answers, constant availability, and seemingly limitless insight. For Christians, this is not merely a technological shift. It is a spiritual one. The deeper question is not whether AI is useful, but how it is forming us, especially in our relationship with God and with one another.
Formation Happens While We Are Not Looking
Formation rarely announces itself. It happens through repetition, through what we turn to first, and through what we rely on when we are tired, anxious, or searching for meaning.
Our hearts were made for worship and communion. We long to be loved and to be known. Like Adam and Eve, we desire knowledge that feels transformative, knowledge that promises wisdom, control, or even godlikeness.
Tools become habits, and habits shape hearts.
This is precisely why technology is so formative. It shapes how quickly we expect answers. It reshapes our patience, especially our willingness to wait on God. AI even influences how we seek help, whether we turn toward community or toward shortcuts.
For many Christians, artificial intelligence feels like a neutral tool for efficiency. But tools become habits, and habits shape hearts. When formation is happening beneath the surface, neutrality is an illusion. Technology does not simply serve us; it forms us.
How AI Reshapes Our Relationship to God
AI isn’t a god. Nor is it divine. But that doesn’t mean humans won’t fall into the religious trap of idolatry. Michael Simmons has argued that the largest “religion” in the next decade may not be Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or atheism, but artificial intelligence. This is not a claim about worship services or temples; it is a claim about function. AI increasingly evokes awe, trust, and dependence. It feels like an ever-present intelligence with answers to life’s deepest questions.
Over time, convenience can replace trust in God.
AI offers false promises of purpose, clarity, and connection to something larger than ourselves. It presents itself as omniscient, always available, and endlessly patient. Yet artificial intelligence is merely a mirror trained on vast amounts of human data, often reflecting back what we already want to hear. And as scripture warns, there will be a time when people seek teachers who tell them what suits their desires (2 Timothy 4:3).
Our hearts are quietly shaped when we begin to:
- Ask ChatGPT before we ask the Lord
- Grow impatient with prayer because AI offers instant “spiritual” insight
- Outsource meditation on scripture instead of wrestling with it ourselves.
None of these habits feel rebellious at the moment. They feel convenient. But over time, convenience can replace trust in God.
How AI Reshapes Our Relationships in the Church
A Harvard Business Review article noted that one of the top uses of generative AI in 2025 was therapy and companionship. This should not surprise Christians as we know that human beings are created for relationship.
One of the top uses of generative AI in 2025 was therapy and companionship.
Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). Yet AI chatbots are increasingly becoming functional neighbours. They listen without interruption and affirm without challenge. They are always available, without an immediate cost compared to therapy.
Real relationships are difficult. Church life involves disagreement, patience, forgiveness, and growth. AI offers a frictionless alternative. Artificial intelligence promises companionship without vulnerability and affirmation without accountability. These promises can only ultimately be fulfilled in Christ, yet they feel compelling in the moment.
Our relational and spiritual muscles are malformed when we begin to:
- Seek discipleship from AI rather than from other Christians
- Avoid training leaders because AI feels faster and more efficient
- Seek counseling from AI instead of biblical counselors
- Use AI-generated responses to sound insightful in Bible studies
Over time, these practices do not just change behaviour. They weaken our capacity for community, patience, and love. We end up settling for these cheap imitations of the real things.
Let God Shape Your Life Instead
In Romans 12:1-2, Paul urges believers not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Formation is unavoidable. The question is not whether we are being shaped, but by what.
The invitation before the church is the slow, transforming work of the Spirit.
The world often shapes us without our consent. The Spirit, however, transforms us with intention. God forms his people through scripture, prayer, community, obedience, and the slow, often uncomfortable work of renewal. These practices resist shortcuts. They require time, attention, and trust. Artificial intelligence can subtly alter how we engage with these means of grace. When we forget that formation is always happening, we drift into unexamined patterns of reliance on tools rather than on God.
AI can be used wisely. It can support learning, organisation, and creativity. But discernment is required. The critical question for the church is not, “Can we use AI?” but “Where has AI replaced struggle, waiting, or dependence on God and his people?”
Formation is happening, quietly and daily. The invitation before the church is to notice it, and to choose again the slow, transforming work of being shaped by the Spirit.
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