A study by Britain’s Department of Education has included the role of pastor or clergy in its list of the top 20 professions most likely to be impacted by the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Premier Christian News reports.

Clergy ranked 13th on its list of most vulnerable professions, which studied the skill sets of specific jobs to see which could most easily be replaced by AI.

The study found that Clergy were less likely to be impacted than government administrators who came in at 12th, but more likely to be impacted than University professors who were listed at 14th.

The study concluded that telemarketers were the most vulnerable to being replaced by AI.

But pastors shouldn’t be brushing off their resumes just yet.

While certain elements of a clergy’s work could potentially be replaced by AI, other personal ministry such as counseling could not.

And of course, the bigger issue is how receptive would congregations be to having AI take a bigger role in their church.

While AI has been used as a novelty item to actually handle services in Liberal churches in Germany and the US, its acceptance among the significantly larger Conservative denominations is questioned.

Many suspect that churches who hold to a strong Biblical tradition would not only be reluctant to use AI, but even aggressively opposed to it.

READ: Clergy ranked in top 20 jobs most exposed to AI, but expert says ‘don’t panic!’ AND Church clergy among jobs most at risk from AI chatbots