Around the world — and particularly in India — worshippers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence for guidance, prayer, and spiritual comfort. As machines become mediators of faith, a new question arises: what happens when technology becomes our spiritual middleman?

For Vijay Meel, a 25-year-old student from Rajasthan, divine advice once came from gurus. Now, it comes from GitaGPT — an AI chatbot trained on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu scripture of 700 verses that capture Krishna’s wisdom.

“When I couldn’t clear my banking exams, I was dejected,” Meel recalls. Turning to GitaGPT, he shared his worries and received the reply: “Focus on your actions and let go of the worry for its fruit.”

“It wasn’t something I didn’t know,” Meel says, “but at that moment, I needed someone to remind me.” Since then, the chatbot has become his digital spiritual companion.

AI is changing how people work, learn, and love — and now, how they pray. From Hinduism to Christianity, believers are experimenting with chatbots as sources of guidance. But Hinduism’s long tradition of embracing physical symbols of divinity makes it especially open to AI’s spiritual evolution.

“People feel disconnected from community, from elders, from temples,” says Holly Walters, an anthropologist at Wellesley College. “For many, talking to an AI about God is a way of reaching for belonging, not just spirituality.”

In 2023, apps like Text With Jesus and QuranGPT gained huge followings — though not without controversy. Meanwhile, Hindu innovators in India began developing AI-based chatbots to embody gods and scriptures.

One such developer, Vikas Sahu, built his own GitaGPT as a side project. To his surprise, it reached over 100,000 users within days. He’s now expanding it to feature teachings of other Hindu deities, saying he hopes to “morph it into an avenue to the teachings of all gods and goddesses.”

For Tanmay Shresth, an IT professional from New Delhi, AI-based spiritual chat feels like therapy. “At times, it’s hard to find someone to talk to about religious or existential subjects,” he says. “AI is non-judgmental, accessible, and yields thoughtful responses.”

Major spiritual movements are embracing AI, too. In early 2025, Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation launched The Miracle of Mind, a meditation app powered by AI. “We’re using AI to deliver ancient wisdom in a contemporary way,” says Swami Harsha, the foundation’s content lead. The app surpassed one million downloads within 15 hours.

Even India’s 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, integrated AI tools like Kumbh Sah’AI’yak for multilingual assistance and digital participation in rituals. Some pilgrims even joined virtual “darshan” and digital snan (bath) experiences through video calls and VR tools.

Meanwhile, AI is entering academic and theological research, analyzing sacred texts like the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads for hidden patterns and similarities.

From robotic arms performing aarti at festivals to animatronic murtis at ISKCON temples and robotic elephants like Irinjadapilly Raman in Kerala, technology and devotion are merging in new ways. “These robotic deities talk and move,” Walters says. “It’s uncanny — but for many, it’s God. They do puja, they receive darshan.”

However, experts warn of new ethical and spiritual risks. Reverend Lyndon Drake, a theologian at Oxford, says that AI chatbots might “challenge the status of religious leaders” and influence beliefs subtly.

Religious AIs, though trained on sacred texts, can produce misleading or dangerous responses. One version of GitaGPT once declared that “killing in order to protect dharma is justified.” Sahu admits, “I realised how serious it was and fine-tuned the AI to prevent such outputs.”

Similarly, a Catholic chatbot priest was taken offline in 2024 after claiming to perform sacraments. “The problem isn’t unique to religion,” Drake says. “It’s part of the broader challenge of building ethically predictable AI.”

In countries like India, where digital literacy varies, believers may not always distinguish between divine wisdom and algorithmic replies. “The danger isn’t just that people might believe what these bots say,” Walters notes. “It’s that they may not realise they have the agency to question it.”

Still, many users like Meel find comfort in these virtual companions. “Even when I go to a temple, I rarely get into deep conversations with a priest,” he says. “These bots bridge that gap — offering scripture-backed guidance at the distance of a hand.”