70 million use AI for religion queries each week

Faith, Community and AI – How people use ChatGPT for everyday religious observance found that roughly 45 per cent of the searches it received about religion from September 2025 to September 2026 involved Islam. Thirty-four per cent concerned Christianity, 4 per cent Hinduism, 1 per cent Judaism and 2 per cent Buddhism.

The five world faiths accounted for approximately 85 per cent of the religion search requests analysed by the report. The increase in queries relating to religion appeared to be linked to religious festivals: the number of searches for information linked to Islam spiked around Ramadan and Eid-al-Adha, while searches concerning Christianity rose around Easter. Searches relating to Judaism linked to holidays, rituals and kosher practice increased around Passover. 

Just under a third – or 22 million – of the ChatGPT searches involved understanding religious texts, while about 16 million focused on the meaning of religious practices and holidays. Similar numbers asked questions about beliefs, meaning or spiritual guidance.

Around half of Christian-related searches were queries about passages of Scripture, while 13 per cent concerned worship, sermons or church practices.

In the report produced last month, Open AI stated: “AI is not – and should not become – an arbiter of religious truth or a replacement for spiritual guidance. Those roles belong to individuals, religious leaders and congregations. What AI can do is to give people tools that help them practise their faith, deepen their understanding and connect more meaningfully with those who share their beliefs.” 

More than 1.2 billion people now use ChatGPT every week, the report stated. ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by the OpenAI company.

FULL STORY

Seventy million people consult AI on religion every week (By Bess Twiston Davies/The Tablet)

What is ChatGPT? (IBM)