Most of the business world is obsessed with the AI revolution. Efficiency, increased return on investment (ROI), wider profit margins. The machine working beautifully for the people.

Wait. No: for Mammon.

To anyone with a Christian world-view, it is blatantly obvious what is going on. The finance bros’ dreams have finally come true. They can now perform their ROI-maxxing ritual to the full, eliminating the highest cost of running a business: humans. From their gilded offices, they cut headcount to squeeze out a few more points of margin, while regular people grow angry at the sheer lack of respect for human dignity.

Let’s play this out. As companies rush to flood the market with AI-generated “products”, sure, we will see reduced costs and fewer mistakes. But there is a fatal flaw. AI, by its very design, is just an amalgamation of existing data. It lacks character, creativity and, most importantly, soul. It does what it can to predict the most probable next thing. It will always be average, sterile, imitation-human garbage. Even as it attempts to mask itself as human, it transcendentally has no soul. It was not created by a human.

As mega-corporations force their teams to work overtime training the AIs that will replace them, they are flooding the world with work that is often more efficient but entirely devoid of humanity.

This building resistance – like a spring being pressed further and further into the ground – is the opportunity of a lifetime for us Catholic business owners.

You are not a “consumer” – I hate that word. You are a human created in the image and likeness of God. Imago Dei. Deep down in your soul, you have desires woven into the fabric of your very existence. These are what the Church calls the transcendentals: unity, truth, goodness and beauty. God placed these in our very fibre as created beings.

That is why we admire a unified family. Beautiful buildings. The truth being upheld. No, girls cannot become boys, thank you very much. And good deeds being done.

You will never have unity with an algorithm. Because AI cannot authentically produce these spiritual realities, the more ubiquitous artificial systems become, the more people will crave genuine human connection.

There are data to back this up. Eighty-one per cent of consumers – eww… I really hate that word – believe companies use AI only to save money. Not to improve the experience, simply to improve the bottom line.

Fifty-three per cent of people say they would switch to a competitor’s service if forced to deal with an AI agent. Forty per cent of people are willing to pay a premium if that means they can ensure they are buying from a human.

Simultaneously, AI-driven layoffs are leading hundreds of thousands of people to have a personal beef with AI for taking their jobs. When a company puts profit over people, it creates an underlying bias against similar companies.

The average person knows it is wrong. Going back to those transcendentals we discussed: they do not have the words for it. They just know it is not true or good to discard people like tissues solely to boost profit margins.

I would tell you that people will resent the vest-wearing, golf-playing financiers who treat humans as disposable line items, but often there will not even be a “person” responsible for these decisions. In the future, it will probably be AI deciding. Exactly what Pope Leo told us should never happen in his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.

This is exactly where our unique advantage lies as Catholic business owners. By truly understanding and practising Catholic social teaching, we can uphold the inherent dignity of every human being as created imago Dei. We understand that humans are not consumers from whom we extract money. Businesses exist to help us provide for our families, as well as the families of those who work for us. They do that by serving other humans: the customers.

The point of our being created is not to pile up as much money as possible, to travel all around the world, to work. The point of our lives is to reach our eternal destination, where we can have full unity with God – there is the transcendental again.

We must radically reshape how we run our businesses. So-called “best practices” are not Catholic practices. Here is what it should look like.

Treat your employees as humans with eternal souls, recognising that you, by being in their lives, have a role to play in helping them to get to Heaven. Pay a fair wage. Offer plenty of time off. Be flexible about family needs. Give them a mission to pursue, rather than soul-crushing, paper-pushing work. Use AI on the back end, where no customer-facing work is happening. Use AI to help your workers actually work less. Perhaps they will earn more so that their wife can stay at home with the children. Or perhaps they will have more time, allowing them to practise their faith better.

When that type of care – nay… love – exists between employer and employee, an eternal bond is formed. The employee is happy because they are treated in a way that is true and good. When this happens, that transcendental desire in their heart is brought to life. Like a harp that has lain untouched and dusty for years – but no longer. Now it has finally found someone to make it sing.

Guess who notices that – that love and joy? The customer. If your employees are full of joy and love for their customers, they treat them better. Modern people do not possess the language to express this frustration with soulless companies. They never did – because it was not passed down. Regardless, they still feel the void. So… when they encounter real human joy and care, it hits them. Deep. At the fibre of their being.

It is important to state that I am not anti-technology. If you met me, you would probably rate me as one of the most tech-nerdy guys you had ever encountered. I love innovation. I just know that technology must be in the service of humans – not the other way around.

It is also important to note that AI, especially when deployed in the physical world, will reduce the cost of many basic goods. This is good, especially for the poor, who simply need utility.

But as time goes on, the chasm between companies that respect human dignity and those that do not will become painfully obvious. I believe strongly that consumers with excess income will proactively seek out – crave, even – and ultimately pay more for authentically human-made goods, regardless of whether that means a human-delivered service or code written by a person.

You were born for this moment – literally. God chose that you would be alive at this time. So uncover the clues to your exact adventure, pick up your tools and use them well. We have a city to rebuild.

Millions of people are searching for real-world, dirty, messy human connection – flaws and all. In an age of perfection, real life is the stuff of our dreams.

Reject the utility-first culture. Take pride in your work. Pour your soul into it – really. Build a culture of human excellence. Show the world what business is really about.

Let’s use this reset moment to set the tone and change the tenor of business “best practices” forever.

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Silas Mähner is the founder of Roosevelt Talent (a GreenTech search firm) and Catholic Founders – a community for Catholic entrepreneurs exploring the theology of entrepreneurship. He and his wife, Lynn, are raising their young family in Nashville, Tennessee.

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