Artificial Intelligence in Spiritual Care: Modified Delphi Study

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Ethics
• Digital Health
• Spiritual Care

Background:

• Spiritual care providers face challenges integrating artificial intelligence (AI) within ethical and religious frameworks.
• Limited empirical data exists on professional perspectives regarding AI in spiritual care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate AI use cases, risks, benefits, and ethical considerations in spiritual care from a multistakeholder expert viewpoint.
• To identify essential professional competencies for AI implementation in spiritual care.

Main Methods:

• A two-round international, multistakeholder modified Delphi study.
• 149 subject experts rated 213 items on AI assistance, risks, ethics, and competencies.
• Consensus was determined using variance and directionality measures; subgroup analyses were performed.

Main Results:

• Strong agreement that AI can assist with administrative, informational, documentation, and research tasks (95.1% to 83.8%).
• Lower agreement for AI in patient-facing relational tasks (43.5% to 42.1%).
• Experts favored AI assistance over substitution, viewing AI's future potential higher than current capabilities. Improved screening/triage was the top benefit; loss of human connection was the top risk.

Conclusions:

• Expert views on AI in spiritual care are task-specific, future-oriented, and conditional.
• AI is suitable for administrative and research support, while direct relational care remains a human responsibility.
• Consensus exists on practical safeguards and competencies for AI implementation, despite ongoing ethical and theological debates.