What Does Faithful Stewardship Look Like When You Use AI in Your Business?
AI is a tool that has been placed in your hands. The question is what you do with it.
Many Christian business owners and ministry leaders feel two things about AI at once. They are curious, and they are cautious. Both are reasonable. A better question than "Should I use AI?" is "If I use it, how do I use it well?"
That is a stewardship question.
The Scripture
"To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey." (Matthew 25:15, NIV)
What the passage is about
This verse comes from a parable Jesus told his disciples, often called the Parable of the Talents. The NIV titles it the Parable of the Bags of Gold, and its footnote explains that the Greek word is "talent," a sum worth about 20 years of a day laborer's wage.
In the story, a master entrusts his wealth to three servants before leaving on a journey. When he returns, he settles accounts with them. Two servants put what they were given to work. To them he says, "You have been faithful with a few things" (Matthew 25:21, NIV). The third hid what he was given and returned it unused.
Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of heaven and about being found faithful with what God entrusts to us. The parable is not about technology, and it does not tell anyone to use AI.
Where the application begins
Everything from here on is application: my attempt to carry the idea of stewardship into a modern business decision. It is not a command of Scripture, and thoughtful believers may apply it differently.
Two details in verse 15 are worth sitting with. The servants received different amounts, and each received "according to his ability." Stewardship starts with what is actually in your hands, not with what someone else has.
For a business owner today, what is in your hands includes your time, your skills, the people you serve, and the tools available to you. AI is one of those tools.
Four ways to practice stewardship with AI
Use it to make room for what matters. If AI drafts a first version of an email or organizes your notes, the point is not simply to do more. It is to give your attention back to the people and the work only you can do.
Stay responsible for the result. AI can be wrong, and it can sound confident when it is. Read what it produces before you send it, post it, or teach it. Your name is on the work, so the responsibility stays with you. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology lists "valid and reliable" among the characteristics of trustworthy AI, and states that "trustworthy AI depends upon accountability."
Protect what people trust you with. Clients, members and customers share personal information with you. Think carefully before you paste private details into any AI tool, and learn how the tool handles what you give it. The same NIST framework names "privacy-enhanced" as a mark of trustworthy AI.
Be honest about it. Do not present AI's work as something it is not, and do not let it invent facts, quotes or stories on your behalf. If a person would feel misled to learn how something was made, that is a signal to slow down.
A question to carry with you
Before you hand a task to AI, ask: does using it here help me serve people better, or does it only help me avoid something I am responsible for?
The first is stewardship. The second deserves a second look.
I see AI as a tool, and tools take on the character of the person using them. For me, the goal is not to use AI for everything. It is to use it on purpose, so that more of my time and energy go to the people I am called to serve.
Try This Today
- Write down one task where AI could give you back an hour this week.
- Decide what you will do with that hour before you save it.
- Choose one thing you will always check yourself before it goes out under your name.
- Read the privacy settings of one AI tool you already use.
Sources
- BibleGateway, Matthew 25:14-30, New International Version (The Parable of the Bags of Gold)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), AI Risk Management Framework
- NIST Trustworthy and Responsible AI Resource Center, AI RMF: AI Risks and Trustworthiness (characteristics of trustworthy AI)