A worker just won a religious exemption from using AI. Here's what it means for recruiting tools
The News
A software engineer at a large North Carolina tech-entertainment company has won a religious exemption from using AI in her work, citing environmental and ethical objections aligned with her Unitarian Universalist faith, Business Insider reported in June. The case — now flagged by SHRM in its July 2026 Executive Download as a trend HR leaders need to watch — is the first high-profile instance of a worker successfully claiming a faith-based accommodation to opt out of AI tools.
The timing is significant. Pope Leo XIV released a 42,000-word encyclical in May warning that AI could "undermine human dignity and displace workers," and legal experts say the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that raised the bar for denying religious accommodations makes these claims harder to dismiss. "Playing priest, and telling employees their request isn't legitimate, does not tend to bode well for companies," said Ashley Herd, former McKinsey counsel and head of North American HR. EEOC data shows 3,600+ religion-based discrimination charges were filed in fiscal 2024 — a roughly 70% increase from 2021.
The successful exemption didn't slow the engineer down. She completed a coding task at the same speed as a colleague who used AI, undermining the argument that opting out of AI tools means falling behind. Her denomination, the Unitarian Universalist Association, is now developing both a policy and theological statement on AI.
Why It Matters
For TA leaders, this isn't about one software engineer in North Carolina. It's about what happens when a candidate or employee objects to your AI-powered screening tool, your chatbot scheduler, your video interview analysis platform, or your skills-matching algorithm on religious grounds. The legal framework exists. The EEOC charge numbers are rising. And the Pope just handed every Catholic employee a potential written excuse, as one commentator put it.
The immediate consequence: if your organisation mandates AI tools in any part of the hiring or employment process, you need a religious accommodation policy that covers them — and you need it before the first request lands on your desk. The deeper consequence: this case exposes a broader question about whether "mandatory AI" is a defensible position at all. When a worker can perform at the same level without AI, the rationale for requiring it weakens considerably.
Taking Action
All action is situated in your corporate context. These are starting points, not prescriptions — choose what fits.
Connect
Who to talk with in your enterprise
Your employment counsel or legal team: ask whether your religious accommodation policy explicitly addresses AI tool usage. If it doesn't, fix that now. Your HRIS or TA technology lead: map every AI-powered touchpoint in your candidate and employee lifecycle. Which ones are mandatory (candidates must use the chatbot to schedule, employees must use the AI note-taker)? Which are optional? You need that inventory before the first accommodation request.
Inspect
What to take a closer look at
Do a rapid audit: list every AI tool used in your TA process — screening, scheduling, chatbots, assessments, video interviews, skills inference, sourcing. For each one, ask two questions: (1) Is this tool mandatory for candidates or employees? (2) If someone requested a religious accommodation to bypass it, what would your response be? If you can't answer the second question with a process you'd be comfortable defending in front of a jury, you have work to do.
Reflect
What to think about more deeply
If a candidate told your recruiting team tomorrow that using an AI scheduling assistant violated their religious beliefs, would your process default to accommodation or to finding a reason to move on — and what does that say about whether your organisation treats AI as a tool or an ideology?