Misty Phillip “What Radio Stations Need to Know About AI..”

What Radio Stations Need to Know About AI (From Someone Who Made the Leap from Media to Tech)

I spent years in the Christian media world. I founded Spark Media, built a podcast network, partnered with NRB, launched a magazine, and poured everything I had into empowering faith-based communicators to use their voices well. I was not looking for a career change. I was not shopping for a new industry. But God had other plans.

In January 2025, I closed Spark Media and stepped into a completely different world. I became the COO of Trilogyworks, a boutique technology firm specializing in cybersecurity and AI-driven solutions for enterprise clients. I went from coaching podcasters to advising organizations on artificial intelligence governance and digital security. And I can tell you firsthand that what I am seeing from the technology side should matter deeply to everyone working in Christian radio.

Because AI is not coming to your station. It is already there. And most stations are not prepared for what happens next.

AI Is Already in Your Building

Let me be direct. If your station uses any kind of scheduling software, content management system, digital ad platform, or streaming analytics tool built or updated in the last two years, there is a strong chance AI is already embedded in your workflow. Many of the platforms radio stations rely on have quietly integrated machine learning into their backend. You may not see it, but it is shaping how your content gets distributed, how your ads get placed, and how your audience data gets analyzed.

Beyond that, your staff is using AI whether you have a policy for it or not. They are using things like ChatGPT to draft social media posts. They are using AI tools to clean up audio. They are using generative AI to brainstorm content ideas, write show prep, and even draft donor communications. This is not a criticism. It is a reality. And the question is not whether your team will use AI. The question is whether your station will lead that conversation or get caught off guard by it.

What I Learned When I Crossed Over

Here is what surprised me most when I moved from media into the technology space. The gap between what media professionals think AI does and what AI actually does is enormous.

In media, we tend to think of AI as a productivity shortcut. A faster way to write copy. A tool that edits audio. A smarter way to schedule content. And it can be all of those things. But that is like describing the ocean as “a place where you can swim.” Technically true. Massively incomplete.

On the technology side, the conversations are about data governance, algorithmic bias, autonomous decision-making, and the ethics of systems that learn from and act on human behavior at scale. These are not abstract concerns for Silicon Valley think tanks. They are operational realities that will affect how your station collects listener data, how your content gets surfaced by platforms, how your advertising partners use AI to target your audience, and how your on-air talent is potentially replicated by synthetic voice technology.

I did not understand the full scope of this until I was sitting in cybersecurity briefings and AI governance meetings. And I realized that the media world, the world I came from, was making decisions about AI tools without understanding what was happening underneath the hood.

Three Things Every Station Leader Needs to Understand Right Now

First, your listener data is more valuable than you think, and AI makes it more vulnerable. Every station collects data. Donor records. Listener surveys. Email lists. Streaming analytics. Website behavior. AI tools that touch this data, even indirectly, create new exposure points. If your team is uploading donor lists into AI-powered marketing platforms or running listener data through third-party analytics tools without understanding how those tools process and store information, you have a data governance problem. And in an era where data breaches are not a matter of if but when, that is a liability your station cannot afford to ignore.

Second, AI-generated content is not neutral. Every AI model is trained on data selected and shaped by human beings with their own assumptions, blind spots, and worldviews. The output you get from an AI tool reflects the values baked into its training data. For Christian radio, this matters profoundly. If your team is using AI to draft devotional content, write blog posts, create social media copy, or even develop talking points for on-air conversations, you need to understand that the tool generating that content does not share your theological convictions. It does not hold a biblical worldview. It is pattern-matching, not truth-telling. And if no one on your team is reviewing AI-generated content through a lens of biblical discernment, you are outsourcing your editorial voice to a system that was never designed to honor Scripture.

Third, synthetic voice and AI cloning technology is advancing faster than most media leaders realize. There are already tools that can replicate a human voice with just a few minutes of audio samples. For radio, where voice is everything, this is not a distant concern. It is a present one. Stations need to be thinking now about how they will protect the vocal identity of their on-air talent, how they will verify the authenticity of audio content, and how they will respond if someone uses AI to create a convincing fake of one of their hosts saying something they never said. The reputational risk is significant, and the technology to create these fakes is getting cheaper and more accessible by the month.

Why Christian Radio Cannot Sit This Out

I understand the temptation to put AI conversations in the “we will deal with it later” category. Radio is a demanding business. There are pledge drives to run, programming decisions to make, staff to manage, and listeners to serve. AI feels like a problem for the tech industry, not the broadcast booth.

But here is what I know from sitting on both sides of this conversation. The organizations that wait to engage with AI until they are forced to are the ones that get disrupted the hardest. And Christian media, the very space that should be leading with wisdom and discernment on the most consequential technological shift of our generation, cannot afford to be the last to the table.

This is not about chasing every new tool or overhauling your operations overnight. It is about developing a framework for how your station will evaluate, adopt, and govern AI tools with intentionality and biblical discernment. It is about training your staff to use AI as a tool without letting it become a crutch. And it is about understanding that the decisions being made right now in boardrooms and engineering labs across the world will shape the information landscape your listeners are navigating every single day.

If Christian radio does not speak into this moment with clarity and courage, someone else will fill that void. And I can assure you, they will not be filling it with a biblical worldview.

Start the Conversation Now

My transition from media to tech was not something I planned. But I believe God orchestrated it for a reason. The Christian media community needs voices that understand both the mission of the Gospel and the mechanics of the technology reshaping how that Gospel reaches people. I wrote The Trojan Horse of the Digital Age: Why Christians Must Discern AI because I saw a gap that needed to be filled. Not with fear. Not with hype. But with honest, Biblical Framework and faith-grounded education about what AI actually is, what it can do, and why the Church cannot afford to be passive.

If you are a station leader, program director, or anyone serving in Christian media, I want to encourage you to start having these conversations with your team today. Not next quarter. Not when something goes wrong. Today.

Pick up a copy of The Trojan Horse of the Digital Age: Why Christians Must Discern AI at https://a.co/d/0hn1MB9L. It is available in Kindle, hardback, and paperback. Whether you read it personally or use it as a resource for your leadership team, I believe it will equip you to navigate this moment with the wisdom and discernment our industry desperately needs. Be sure to grab your additional free resources at MistyPhillip.com.

The Church has always been at its best when it engages culture with truth, not when it retreats from it. AI is the conversation of our generation. Let’s make sure Christian radio has a seat at the table.

Misty Phillip is the author of “The Trojan Horse of the Digital Age: Why Christians Must Discern AI,” “Spark Your Influence,” and co-author of “Upskill or Die.” She is the COO of Trilogyworks, a cybersecurity and AI solutions firm, and a speaker. Connect with Misty at MistyPhillip.com or Triligyworks.com.