AI, Missions and Practical Applications

Searching for uses in a game which is mostly about human interaction

AI is a hot topic in global missions. Any event we do that has AI in the title ends up with more participation. How are missions focused teams using AI in this, its infancy?

Today is the Missio Nexus webinar announcing the Innovation Fund, and I look forward to seeing the projects that are submitted. I am going to predict that we see some that are focused on AI and its application to global missions.

For the most part, what I am seeing with AI in this space is mostly leadership teams in home offices utilizing it. This is primarily around content generation for websites, fundraising, training, and similar applications. Some are using it for graphics on websites which is an interesting application because it removes the ethical dilemma of using people’s photos without their permission (a long-standing ethical gap in missions media).

The image above is one I created using Midjourney. I find it to be an incredible tool for creative generation. I have spent my monthly credits quickly, testing attributes and reworking images around very specific goals. Since it runs in Discord, I often have Discord running on my desktop just to see the images that others are creating. It is cool to watch them get a first result and then change the parameters, producing new images. You can also see how AI messes up. I watched an image of a “ship sailing through the sea” and Midjourney created a tunnel of water with a ship in it. Not quite what the user wanted.

Ministry staff are utilizing AI in online meeting software as well. We just turned this feature on in our Zoom account. You get meeting summaries which are helpful, but thus far I find they need a fair bit of editing for anything other than archival purposes. It does help to use specific language around assigning a task or making summary statements. Something like, “Add to action item list: Assign Ted Esler to solve all of the problems in missions, due yesterday.” The AI picks these up much better even though it breaks up the meeting flow somewhat.

The other application, which is becoming more and more attainable for non-technical users, is applying AI to create chatbots for “fenced in” data. In other words, training it to use your documents. This has been possible for some time (see my previous article on this) but the usefulness of this is rapidly improving. I am working on an Azure OpenAI instance right now utilizing church missions material. The result will hopefully be a training course for new church missions leaders.

These are helpful uses of AI, but they are not what I would consider breakthrough innovations for ministry purposes. They are productivity enhancers. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but they are not really moving the ball on ministry objectives.

One area where AI is impacting ministry is Bible translation. I would expect the major hurdles here to continue to fall at a rapid rate. Bible translation times will be reduced to almost nothing and we can expect better and more accurate translations. Will it take away the need for human translators? How we think of them today, yes. But I expect human participation in Bible translation will continue to be a need.

How might we see AI utilized for better ministry purposes? Here are three ways that I think AI will be utilized in ministry. I would welcome your input on adding more.

1.       Understanding the task better

Seeing the needs in cultures, from their lack of Gospel awareness to physical needs, will be enhanced using AI. Map generation is still in its AI infancy, but there might be a future in which AI can tell you how best to serve your neighbors based on demographic analysis. Culture and historical summaries for new workers, analytics surrounding response and resistance, and other data-driven aspects of ministry will be enhanced.

2.       Better teaching

Already I am aware of an organization that trained AI on its missions, vision, policies, employee handbook, and management practices. The AI was instructed to create a course for new managers using these resources. From the AI-generated content, they were able to implement this course in a much shorter time than if they had started from scratch.

I anticipate that in the future, missionaries will train AI on the data about the culture they are serving therving. When added to the Biblical data, they may create more contextualized yet Biblically faithful teaching materials.

3.       More human interaction

Relationships today often start online and end up in person. AI has the potential to assist digital ministry leaders to better identify and communicate with the spiritually open. Within the digital ministry community, there are vastly different approaches being taken (which is great!). These approaches range from highly narrow, neighborhood-scale outreach to mass media outreach to thousands. In both instances, moving a person from online inquirer toward a personal meeting is crucial to effective outreach.

AI can both facilitate online chats, evaluate responses, and get humans involved at the proper time. After this online connection is made, it can also help understand the likelihood of somebody being willing to meet face to face. This will only happen with a significant amount of training data. Thus, it will take time and effort to make this happen.

My editor read this article and suggested two other uses that he is seeing. They are boosting mobilization efficiency and enhancing their “product offering.” I would place the mobilization enhancements into the productivity enhancements category. The organization he works for produces physical products which serve people (for example, water systems). AI has been applied to water pump data to make this ministry tool more effective.

Note that Microsoft has called its AI offering “Copilot.” This was done for ethical reasons. They want AI to be seen as coming alongside us humans, not replacing us. I think this is a valid assumption for us to apply to ministry as well. While I appreciate what the digital world offers us, it is no replacement for “skin on” interaction with real human beings.

Those are three ways that I think AI can help us in a ministry context. What other ideas come to mind for you?

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[image created in Midjourney with the following prompt: a color photo of an indian man standing on a street corner in New Delhi, studio portraiture, john lurie, sony alpha a1, george stefanescu, portrait, performance]