You'd be forgiven for thinking AI is just yet more techno hype, but for anyone working in the funeral sector, the implications of artificial intelligence go far deeper than clever email replies or meeting summaries.
I've been working with John Adams as producer of his podcast, Death: A Changing Industry, for the past three years and have seen first-hand, through over 80 conversations now, how grief, values and human connection are at the very heart of the profession. I've also seen how AI risks disrupting them.
I'm a tech person by trade; an IT strategist specialising in how and where AI meets storytelling, helping industries to use it with clarity, caution and compassion. Yet sometimes what I see scares even me.
You may be using ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot every day but not be aware of the sheer number and range of AI tools on the market. Last count there were 41,000 different tools. That's 500 more than the week before.
Some clone and generate voice with terrifying accuracy, create artwork, lip-sync video with different voices, and turn photographs into video. You can imagine the less-than-orthodox applications (and if you can imagine it, someone is already doing it).
Used with care, this technology could enhance tributes to the deceased and increase the value funeral professionals provide to the grieving. Used recklessly, it could prolong their grief indefinitely.
Creative applications that have the potential to transform the way we honour people already exist. The ability to animate photographs, previously the stuff of Harry Potter's world, add yourself to photographs, create likenesses of people ageing to milestones never reached in life, write beautiful poetry and tributes – all these things and more are available now.
Social applications of AI are growing ever more popular: those virtual assistants that, in a vulnerable state, people may turn to as the only voice that's listening. They're providing advice, acting as therapists, friends, romantic partners; offering instant connection and inauthenticity in equal measure.
Pandora's box is open. It's our responsibility to adapt and set boundaries.
Worse: that same technology can all too realistically impersonate a lost loved one's communication style. It's easy, you just feed it examples of how they communicated and bam, the AI can replicate them.
If there's one thing I've learnt working with John, it's that grief is about closure, and it worries me that these tools may result in people holding on to their grief rather than processing it.
I'm not saying AI is all bad – far from it. Many of these new tools have uses that are genuinely useful: avatars for staff training, translation into other languages and so on. But Pandora's box is open. It's our responsibility to adapt and set boundaries.
AI is still in its early days. Its consequences are already spilling into our social media feeds and our working lives. It's not going away and we must all learn to navigate it, understand it, and harness it where and how we responsibly can.
But the bigger issues for those in the bereavement sector are around protecting authenticity, compassion and trust.
First published in Funeral Service Journal, November 2025, as part of Dan's monthly AI column, and republished here with thanks to FSJ.