What Magnifica Humanitas Affirmed for Me About AI Literacy, Families, and Nonprofit Leadership

I did not go all in on AI because I thought it was shiny, trendy, or the next exciting tool to chase. I went all in because I became deeply aware that AI is not just another technology shift. It is a power shift. And when power shifts, people can either be prepared, protected, included, and empowered — or they can be left behind, misled, exploited, and harmed. That realization changed everything for me.

For a while, I had been “playing around” with AI. I was curious. I tested tools. I explored possibilities. Like many people, I could see that something big was happening, but I had not fully stepped into it yet. Then a few things happened.

First, I started thinking seriously about my own future. After decades in customer experience, operations, training, and nonprofit leadership, I began asking myself: What skills will I need next? What does the changing workforce mean for me, for my teams, and for the people I serve? What kind of upskilling is no longer optional?

Second, someone I respected deeply in the children’s advocacy space was speaking strongly against AI. That got my attention.

Not because I immediately agreed or disagreed, but because I have always been someone who investigates. When someone I respect raises a red flag, I do not dismiss it. I want to understand it. I want to know what they are seeing, what they fear, what evidence they are pointing to, and what other viewpoints exist. And as a mom, that concern became personal very quickly.

AI is already showing up in children’s lives. It is showing up in education, tutoring tools, search, social media, creative platforms, apps, entertainment, and schoolwork. Whether families are ready or not, this technology is becoming part of how children learn, communicate, create, and make sense of the world. That made me ask harder questions.

• Where is AI showing up in my children’s lives?

• How can it help them learn and create?

• Where can it cause harm?

• How do we prepare our kids to use these tools responsibly?

• How do we protect them from deepfakes, manipulation, misinformation, privacy risks, scams, and unsafe interactions?

• How do we make sure children are not shaped by tools families do not understand?

The more I learned, the more I realized this was not a conversation parents, educators, or community leaders could afford to avoid. Then my nonprofit experience kicked in.

I have spent roughly 30 years working in and around mission-driven work, operations, customer experience, training, and community impact. I have seen firsthand how hard nonprofit teams work to protect people. I have also seen how quickly bad actors move when there is confusion, fear, financial stress, or lack of information.

I have seen scams harm people.

I have seen communities targeted.

I have seen the damage that happens when predatory actors understand a system better than the people they are exploiting.

For those of us who have worked in housing, financial empowerment, education, community development, social services, or any space where people are trying to access support, this is not theoretical. We have seen the harm caused by foreclosure rescue scams, fake assistance programs, misleading financial offers, phishing attempts, identity theft, and misinformation. Now AI makes those risks faster, cheaper, more convincing, and easier to scale. That is the part that kept pulling me deeper into this work.

Yes, AI has powerful use cases. It can help organizations improve operations, reduce administrative burden, create more accessible content, support multilingual communication, summarize complex information, personalize learning, strengthen customer experience, and free up staff time for more human-centered work. I believe deeply in those possibilities.

But I also believe we cannot talk about the benefits without talking about the risks.

AI can be used to generate phishing emails that sound more believable.
It can clone voices and create fake emergency calls from someone pretending to be a child, parent, executive, donor, or trusted leader.
It can create fake images, fake documents, fake videos, and fake stories.
It can spread misinformation quickly and convincingly.
It can power scams related to housing, grants, foreclosure prevention, immigration, taxes, benefits, disaster relief, and charitable giving.
It can automate bias in hiring, lending, housing, healthcare, education, and access to public services.
It can expose sensitive personal data when organizations use tools without clear policies or safeguards.
It can displace workers without a serious plan for reskilling, dignity, and economic transition.
And it can concentrate wealth, influence, data, infrastructure, and decision-making power into the hands of a few.

That is why AI literacy matters. Not someday. Now.

Recently, I read more about Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which focuses on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. The Vatican describes the document as a reflection on protecting human dignity in this new technological age, and it was signed on May 15, 2026, the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the historic encyclical that addressed labor, economic disruption, and the rights of workers.

What struck me most was not that the Pope was speaking about AI. It was that the message echoed what so many of us working with families, children, workers, and communities are already feeling:

Technology cannot move faster than our responsibility to protect people. AI cannot be measured only by what it can produce, automate, optimize, or scale. We also have to ask:

Who benefits?
Who is harmed?
Who is included in the design?
Who owns the tools?
Whose data is being used?
Whose labor is being displaced?
Who is paying the hidden costs?
Who carries the environmental burden of the data centers and energy demands?
Who profits from the infrastructure?
Who is left out of the rooms where decisions are being made?

Those are not side questions. Those are the questions.

And you do not have to be Catholic, religious, or even spiritual to recognize the truth in the core message: human dignity must remain at the center. That is the heart of this work for me. I became an AI consultant not because I want nonprofits, families, or professionals to chase every new tool. I became an AI consultant because I believe people need guidance, language, confidence, and practical skills to navigate this shift responsibly.

Families need AI literacy so they can protect and prepare their children. Young people need AI literacy so they can learn how to use these tools ethically, creatively, safely, and with discernment. Workers need AI literacy so they can adapt, advocate for themselves, and understand how their roles may change. Nonprofit leaders need AI literacy so they can make informed decisions before tools are rolled out in ways that affect staff, customers, learners, donors, and communities. And nonprofit teams need AI literacy because the people they serve are often the first to be targeted when systems change and protections lag behind.

That is why I believe nonprofits must lead in AI.

Not because nonprofits have the biggest budgets.
Not because they have the most technical teams.
Not because they have extra time lying around.

They must lead because they are closest to the people most likely to be impacted.

Nonprofits are often the ones helping families understand housing options, access benefits, recover from disasters, avoid scams, navigate financial stress, learn new skills, protect their rights, and rebuild stability. If those organizations fall behind in understanding AI, they may miss the warning signs until harm has already happened. And we know bad actors will not wait.

They will learn the tools.
They will use them to target people.
They will exploit confusion.
They will move faster than policy, faster than training, and faster than public awareness.

That means community-serving organizations cannot afford to sit back and say, “We will deal with AI later.” Later is already here. But this is not only a warning. It is also a call to possibility.

I have seen AI help people bring ideas to life in ways that would have taken months or years before. I have seen people who were displaced from jobs start building businesses, content, tools, and services because AI gave them access to capabilities they could not afford before. I have seen small teams reduce overwhelm, create clearer communication, and serve people better. I have seen people with disabilities and neurodiverse learners use AI-supported tools to access information in ways that work better for them. That matters too.

We cannot only talk about harm. We also have to talk about access. The goal is not to fear AI.

The goal is to understand it well enough to use it responsibly, challenge it when needed, govern it wisely, and make sure it serves people rather than replacing, exploiting, or diminishing them. That is why I wrote Why Nonprofits Must Lead in AI.

I wrote it as someone who has spent decades inside the real work — the messy work, the operational work, the people work, the training work, the customer experience work, the community impact work.

I wrote it because nonprofit leaders and teams do not need hype. They need plain language, real examples, hard truths, practical steps, and a people-centered way to move forward.

I wrote it because I believe AI literacy is now part of protecting the communities we serve.

And I wrote it because I do not want nonprofit teams, families, or everyday people to become the testing ground for AI harm while others profit from the speed of adoption.

We need to learn.

We need to question.

We need to build guardrails.

We need to prepare our staff.

We need to educate families.

We need to protect children.

We need to watch for scams and misinformation.

We need to challenge bias.

We need to create policies that are practical, not performative.

We need to use AI to expand access, not deepen inequity.

And we need to make sure that as this new technological revolution moves forward, human dignity is not treated as an afterthought.

AI is here. The question is not whether we will engage with it. The question is whether we will engage with it responsibly, courageously, and with enough literacy to protect the people who may be most at risk. That is the work I am committed to.

If you are a nonprofit leader, team member, board member, educator, parent, or community advocate, I invite you to start now. Do not wait until your organization has the perfect AI strategy. Do not wait until your staff feels fully ready. Do not wait until harm shows up at your doorstep.

Start with literacy.

Start with honest conversations.

Start with the question: Where is AI already showing up in our work, our homes, our schools, and our communities?

Then ask: What do we need to understand, protect, and build next? My book, Why Nonprofits Must Lead in AI, was written to help start that conversation and move it into action. Because this moment is not just about technology.

It is about trust.

It is about protection.

It is about access.

It is about responsibility.

And most of all, it is about people.

Let’s make sure we do not let the future happen to us.

Let’s lead it — with literacy, courage, and human dignity at the center.

Let’s keep learning together, building together, and leading in AI, and how it shows up in our work and lives, and not be led by it in ways that don’t support our humanity, creativity, empathy, experience, skills, and values. In order to do that, we need to understand it and encourage AI literacy across our teams and families.

Teri

Sources / Further Reading:
Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Vatican, May 15, 2026.
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Dicastery for Culture and Education, Antiqua et nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence, Vatican, January 28, 2025.