Advanced AI degrees

While commuting to Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pa., during her undergraduate studies, Jayna Kitner saw a billboard promoting her school’s new master’s program in artificial intelligence. Kitner planned to use her undergraduate psychology degree from Messiah to be an effective marketer, but she realized a master’s degree in AI could enhance her career opportunities.

Kitner joined the program’s inaugural 2025 class, and says that she’s already learned skills that have boosted her marketing acumen. The 23-year-old said she used AI to generate captions for a previous social media job. Kitner also runs a clothes reselling business online, and said she’s trained AI chatbots to answer customers’ questions, created an AI program that can write product descriptions using photos of the clothes, and used AI to manage email campaigns.

Set to finish classes by August 2026, Kitner hopes to continue to work in marketing. “I thought being kind of on the forefront of the artificial intelligence side of business would be a really great next move,” Kitner said. “Being able to have that kind of [degree] under my belt, I’ve heard so many employers say, ‘It’s fantastic that you’re ahead of the game.’”

Kitner is one of many students who have signed up for new AI degree programs at Christian universities nationwide. Since 2022, 145 degree programs have been added at 76 Christian schools, according to data from MastersInAI.org, an education media company. Overall, more than 300 U.S. schools offer programs.

Christian university leaders say they need to offer these degree programs to match an evolving job market and teach AI development from a Christian worldview.

Mario Migliori, an adjunct professor at nondenominational Messiah, said the school added its program out of both a deep calling and interest to educate students on this technology. “There’s a gap between proper use of AI and ethical, responsible use of AI,” Migliori said. “What better place to emphasize that and to teach people to use AI for good than a Christian university like Messiah?”

Messiah wanted to offer a full master’s program on the tool so students could learn how the technology functions while also learning to use AI responsibly and in a Christ-like manner. The students can then teach the businesses they work for to model those values. Messiah hopes it can be part of a push for more ethical use of the technology.

“One [Christian AI] program isn’t going to be enough to provide the influence that is needed globally to ­properly use AI for good,” Migliori said. “It has to be a lot of different institutions. It has to be partnerships between organizations.”

Schools from a variety of denominations, such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Churches of Christ, and Lutheran, are offering AI degree programs according to MastersinAI. But the leading denominations are Roman Catholic, with programs at 40 schools, and United Methodists, with 13 schools.

Richard Kelley, a clinical assistant professor at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said its master’s and undergraduate degree programs focus on AI from an engineering perspective.

“If a religious school offers engineering, I don’t think they have a choice,” he said. “They’re going to have to confront AI.”

Kelley said schools need to offer more than just a handful of classes on AI. Degree programs allow students to dive into the technology in their freshman year. Then, in their junior and senior years, they can hone in on how best to apply AI to particular fields like business processes or robotics.

A representative for MastersinAI said there is no indication that the growth of these programs will slow down. Instead, schools will likely start adding AI degree programs with specializations.

Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind., offers five different master’s and undergraduate degree programs in AI. Their undergraduate programs, set to start officially in fall 2026, offer specializations in marketing, human resources, and supply chain logistics.

Clark Cully, Indiana Wesleyan University’s technology division chair, said the school wants to promote the students’ own innovation to adapt to constantly changing technology.

“The goal is to get people motivated to learn these things, and then get them started on their own kind of educational journey of lifelong learning,” Cully said.

Brady Jones, a freshman at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., chose an AI degree hoping it could lead to more job opportunities than a degree in computer science. He changed his plans when he heard about the AI degree at an event for incoming freshmen. “Computer science has been around for a long time, and it just feels like a lot of people are going for it now compared to AI,” Jones said. “Just because of how new AI is, having people who are experienced in that field will be very beneficial for a lot of companies.”

Joe Faith, an assistant professor at Harding, said he pitched the idea for the new AI program because the job field has evolved, and employers are looking for graduates with AI-specific skills and the capacity to adapt them across a variety of fields, such as healthcare, finance, defense, logistics, and education.

The push for AI degrees comes from both students and employers, as students want to have degrees that lead to jobs that can’t be automated, while employers are looking for AI talent. “It’s a whole new set of skills that are needed that aren’t covered in traditional computer science programs,” Faith said.

Christian schools need to be willing to offer these degree programs, Faith added, because if they aren’t, they’re shirking an important responsibility.

“As Christians, if we are not willing to jump into this arena, we are not as technologists living up to the calling we claim to have,” Faith said. “This is such a pivotal technology that I feel like the world needs people who come from a morally focused background, saying what is the good and the bad of this technology, and how can we help better teach and shine a light on those things?”