A View from The Vatican: AI, Ethics and the “Dignity of Work”

By Silvia Cambie:

Our anxieties around AI are often based on our working lives’ most transformative experiences, those that have shaped who we are personally and professionally.

I haven’t stopped being excited about AI since my days experimenting with IBM Watson ten years ago. Over time, however, the more familiar I became with this technology, the more I learned to recognize its risks and reflect on its impact on the world of work and the dignity of humans.

In the words of UNESCO, “artificial intelligence contains the seeds of a veritable anthropological revolution”.

That’s why I was honoured to participate in an FIR podcast episode recently and interview, together with hosts Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, Monsignor Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Section of Culture at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education.

Msgr. Tighe plays a key role in the Church’s engagement with technological challenges, particularly AI, the ethical use of tech and the future of human dignity.

In January this year, his dicastery published Antiqua et Nova, a document with the Vatican’s reflections on AI in the light of Christian anthropology, which emphasizes the distinctiveness of human intelligence, and focuses on the Church’s role in defining the rules for AI use.

While I was preparing for the interview, sitting at my desk one afternoon, I closed my eyes and thought of a question close to my heart, one I would really like asking. Managed services popped into my mind. It is a field I‘ve worked in throughout my career; one that is both operationally demanding and fraught with challenges in terms of the dignity of labour.

I asked Msgr. Tighe what employers and societies can do to make sure AI truly serves the needs of people, particularly those in precarious outsourced roles.

He answered by pointing out that we have to recognise there are many contexts in which human work is not valued and workers are dehumanised. “And the risk is that AI in certain ways could exacerbate that”. Some see AI as a tool that can operate around the clock without pause.

“There has been some talk about onshoring employment into the first world again… but a lot of that onshoring is likely to be handed to machines rather than human beings”.

Talking about dehumanizing conditions, he gave the example of food delivery operators in New York who are being driven into competing with each other by an algorithm which allots work to those who are faster in completing their deliveries. The tech creates “competition between people who might previously have been working together”. At the same time however, Msgr. Tighe also recognised that AI has the potential to displace forms of labour that have already been stripped of meaning.

He quoted the late Pope Francis, who believed that “it’s not just about the technology…It’s that the technology is born out of a certain mentality. And if the mentality, the commercial mindset that is giving birth to the technology has at its heart exclusively values about efficiency and profitability, then the chances are that the dignity and worth of individuals will not be respected”.

Change managers and communicators know all too well about the importance of mentality and the impact it can have on their efforts to roll out tech in an ethical way.

Msgr. Tighe offered a particularly perceptive perspective on ethics, especially in light of the current tendency in business and society to reduce it to a private matter. “We are inclined to say… that’s somebody’s own view and just leave it to them”. Instead, what is needed is “to empower people to ask questions, about the choices we make as individuals and as a society”.

In keeping with that approach, I asked Msgr. Tighe to provide some advice to consultants in delivery roles who are struggling to find a balance between professional obligations and their spiritual and ethical beliefs. I have been in that position myself a few times.

He answered by reminding listeners of the true meaning of the word profession. It “actually begins with a kind of religious etymology… that I am standing for something. I profess something. And the skills I have… enable me almost intrinsically to stand for certain values”.

This point echoes his previous insight about empowering people to ask questions. Here are some of the questions we need to find an answer for every time we roll out AI in an enterprise:  “What do we stand for? What are the limits of what we are trying to do? And how do we think about our own ethical and moral responsibility?”

Msgr. Tighe believes that aligning work responsibilities and moral values is best done cooperatively with others. “If a profession and people who work together can find a way of working in solidarity and collaboratively to defend certain values”, it is better “than being picked off one by one and forced into things they are not comfortable with”.

Interviewing Msgr. Tighe left a lasting impression on me, not only as a professional navigating the complexities of technological change but also as a person trying to stay grounded in issues that matter for the dignity of the people we interact with. His way of approaching AI reminded me that leadership isn’t just about having answers, but about creating space for deeper reflection. Here are some of the questions I will be thinking about going forward:

• When working with support teams in outsourced roles, how can I remain attentive to the inherent worth of each person—beyond the pressure of project deadlines and targets?
• As a change and comms practitioner, how can I cultivate a project environment that honours and safeguards human dignity?
• As AI drives us toward a culture of constant measurement, how do I remain attentive to the unquantifiable, like empathy and insight, and ensure they are reflected in the way I lead a project?

🎙️ Listen to the full conversation with the Vatican’s Msgr. Paul Tighe here: https://www.firpodcastnetwork.com/fir-interview-monsignor-paul-tighe-on-ai-ethics-and-the-role-of-humanity/

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Silvia Cambié is a digital transformation professional and communicator. A former business journalist, Silvia’s background spans corporate affairs, enterprise social networking and internal comms. Her experience in tech includes digital transformation, Cloud, AI and change management. She is a #WeLeadComms honoree, a Strategic Columnist and a published author.

Written by: Editor