Can AI Help You Walk With Jesus?

When I tell people I'm building Zoe, one of two things usually happens.

Some people get it immediately. Their eyes light up, and within a few seconds they're thinking about where it could help in their own life, their family, their church, or their small group.

Other times I get a blank stare, followed by some awkward umming and ahhing, while they try to figure out how to tell me I'm building the antichrist.

I'm really not trying to build the antichrist.

I'm trying to explore whether new AI technology can help a guy like me walk with Jesus. If that is what I'm here on earth to do, and this is some of the most powerful technology on earth, then it seems worth asking whether we can point it at our most important project.

Right?

I Understand the Hesitation

I get why people are wary. There's a part of me that still balks at the idea of weaving technology into my spiritual life.

The moments I feel most present with God usually come through silence, nature, music, Scripture, prayer, and unhurried conversation with real people. They don't usually happen while I'm staring at a screen.

But here's the question that keeps pulling me forward: what if, out of all the apps on my phone competing for my attention, there was one quiet tool in the background urging me to return my attention to Christ?

That seems useful.

I'm not interested in replacing prayer, Scripture, church, pastors, friends, counselors, or the Holy Spirit. I'm interested in a small, honest tool that helps me remember what I said mattered when the day starts getting loud.

The goal is not more screen time. The goal is more attention to Jesus.

The Problem With Robotic Reminders

For Zoe to be useful, and genuinely helpful instead of annoying, it can't feel robotic.

A scheduled push notification at precisely noon that says, "Think about God," gets ignored pretty quickly.

I know. I've tried it.

Something more organic feels different. Maybe the timing varies a little. Maybe, eventually, it knows enough context to show up right before the moment I'm most likely to forget what I prayed that morning.

Imagine Zoe nudging you right before you walk into a high-stakes meeting with a simple reminder of the thing you prayed that morning: listen before proving your point. Tell the truth without performing. Remember who you belong to.

That would feel helpful.

Life With Jesus

The idea is to build something that helps Christians fight back in the battle for their attention.

To keep us on mission, remember what we're about, and build a way of life with Jesus.

That phrase matters to me: life with Jesus. A little Jesus bolted onto the rest of life won't do it. Neither will a daily quiet time that never touches the rest of the day. I want people to have a felt sense of living with Jesus daily: morning, midday, evening, work, home, conflict, decision-making, generosity, repentance, courage, ordinary Tuesday.

It's a hard thing to build well.

It requires theological humility, product restraint, and a lot of honesty about what Zoe is and isn't. Zoe is AI. It isn't a pastor, a person, or a spiritual authority.

It also requires listening to people who are skeptical. Maybe especially those people.

We're Building in Public

So that's where we are.

We're exploring whether AI can help someone pay attention to Jesus in ordinary life without becoming the thing they pay attention to.

We'll get some things wrong. A few messages will be too much. A few will be too thin. Some ideas will sound better in my head than they feel in an actual text thread at 2:17 p.m. on a Tuesday.

That's why I want your feedback.

If you haven't yet, join the waitlist. We'll be expanding the alpha in waves as we improve Zoe.

Next on the punch list is giving Zoe iMessage, which I am very excited about.

Hang tight. And thanks for being part of the journey.

Toward Him daily,

Tony