Value-Sensitive AI for Prayer: Balancing the Agencies Between Human and AI Agents in Spiritual Context

2026-04-28

AI Summary

This study investigates how to balance human and artificial agency when integrating AI into high-value-laden spiritual practices such as prayer, with the aim of preserving users’ sense of spiritual authenticity. Drawing on diary studies to identify core values in prayer, the research employs value-sensitive design and speculative design methods to develop four conceptual AI systems. A participatory reflective workbook was used to guide participants in critically examining AI’s impact on their prayer experiences. The work makes three key contributions: emphasizing the preservation of user subjectivity, leveraging AI’s inherent unexplainability to support personal meaning-making, and framing “non-use of AI” as a legitimate design choice. Findings indicate that excessive AI dominance undermines spiritual authenticity, while maintaining interpretive openness is essential for sustaining autonomous and meaningful prayer experiences.

Abstract

We present four conceptual value-sensitive AI systems to examine how the presence of AI could influence praying experiences. Drawing on key values and practices associated with praying identified through a diary study, we designed AI systems intended to "assist" prayer practices. These designs were presented to participants through speculative design workbooks, serving as provocations to co-reflect on how the intervention of AI systems might shape their praying experiences. Our findings suggest that a sense of authenticity (or feeling a genuine connection to the divine) is a crucial value, while the presence of AI was often perceived as diminishing this authenticity, particularly when AI assumed too much agency in guiding praying practices. Based on our findings, we argue that AI system designs for deeply value-laden experiences should preserve users' agency in shaping their own experiences by maintaining interpretive openness, perhaps by leveraging AI's inexplicability as a resource for personal meaning-making or by recognizing non-use of AI as a legitimate design choice.

Problem

• value-sensitive AI
• prayer
• human-AI agency
• authenticity
• spiritual experience

Innovation

• value-sensitive design
• human-AI agency
• spiritual AI
• interpretive openness
• non-use