AI is changing pilgrims’ journeys, but sacred journeys have always adapted to new technology

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(The Conversation) — In 2025, two scholars of religion decided to make a multiday pilgrimage along the Kumano Kodō trail – an ancient route in Japan connecting Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples – guided by an artificial intelligence assistant.

The two – Wayne E. Arnold and John A. Shultz – trained an AI companion on a smartphone to suit their travel needs, including translation. But they were also curious to see how AI would shape their pilgrimage experience.

“Our hike became a test case for how pilgrimage might evolve in the digital age – not being diminished by AI, but reimagined through it,” they wrote later in the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage.

AI tools are moving quickly into the realm of religion, including going on a pilgrimage. I have studied trails both ancient and modern and undertaken significant journeys on foot in the Middle East .

What happens when an ancient and meaningful practice, often rooted in sacred texts, is affected by interaction with machines? From my perspective, AI is changing pilgrimages in ways that echo earlier disruptive…