In the context of the digital transformation, the clergy functions as a unique spiritual workforce whose mission is the ethical and psychological guidance of communities. Today, the members of these communities ("parishioners") are deeply embedded in a digital ecosystem that generates new and complex existential challenges: algorithmic addiction, social isolation, ideological disinformation, and anxieties related to the intersection of technology and humanity, such as transhumanism. These issues inevitably enter the pastoral sphere, demanding a new set of competencies from priests.

However, traditional clerical training, specific to seminaries and theological faculties, has been slow to adapt to this new reality. Curricula rarely include dedicated modules on digital ethics, internet sociology, or the pastoral implications of Artificial Intelligence. This discrepancy creates a significant competency gap, leaving many clergy unprepared to effectively address the problems their parishioners face in their daily lives.

The primary purpose of this study is to identify and map the key competencies and strategic frameworks necessary for effective pastoral ministry in the 21st century. The research aims to define a model of the "digital shepherd", a spiritual guide equipped not only with theological knowledge but also with the discernment and skills required to navigate and provide guidance in a novel digital landscape.

This goal is pursued by answering the following research questions, based on the analysis of the perceptions of Orthodox clergy in Romania: 1) What new professional challenges does the digital environment pose to pastoral practice? 2) What specific competencies (technical, ethical, communicational) are necessary for priests to effectively guide their communities? 3) What are the competing institutional strategies the Church can adopt in the online environment (e.g., defensive isolation vs. missionary engagement)?

The study employs a qualitative methodology, focusing exclusively on the in-depth analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 8 Orthodox Christian clergy in Romania. The sample is diverse, including parish priests, monastics with technical backgrounds, and academic theologians, to ensure a comprehensive perspective on the professional challenges across different segments of the Church.

Thematic analysis of the transcripts focused on identifying recurrent themes related to the professional practice of the clergy. These include pastoral care strategies in the digital environment, debates on the Church's institutional policy towards technology, the personal difficulties of priests in using new media, and, most importantly, the perceived deficits in their own professional training to face these new realities.

The global discourse on workforce readiness for the AI era focuses almost exclusively on technical upskilling and reskilling. Training programs prioritize teaching employees to operate AI tools, manage data, and adapt to automated workflows, treating the human worker as a component to be updated for a new industrial paradigm. This approach, while necessary, is centered on a purely instrumentalist view of human capital, emphasizing efficiency and productivity above all else. This paper argues that such a focus is critically incomplete. It overlooks the profound impact of advanced digital technologies on the inner lives and moral frameworks of workers, affecting their autonomy, ethical discernment, capacity for deep work, and sense of purpose. Current training prepares workers to operate technology but not to resist its potentially dehumanizing tendencies. This study explores this "inner curriculum" of non-technical skills, drawing on unique insights from a community grappling with the tension between ancient tradition and hyper-modernity.

The primary purpose of this research is to identify and articulate the humanistic and ethical competencies required for workforce resilience in an AI-saturated society. The study is motivated by the need to move beyond an instrumentalist view of AI training and to propose a more holistic model that equips workers not only to use technology but to remain its master. This goal is pursued by analyzing the perceptions of Orthodox Christian clergy and laity in Romania. The key research questions are: 1) What are the primary spiritual and ethical risks AI poses to human agency and well-being? 2) How do these risks manifest as challenges within the workforce, particularly regarding critical thinking and interpersonal relationships? 3) What "spiritual skills" or virtues from Orthodox tradition can be translated into a secular framework for modern ethical workforce training, moving from passive consumption to active, value-driven engagement with technology?

The study employs a qualitative methodology, utilizing in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a sample of 8 Christian Orthodox clergy and 6 lay believers in Romania. This two-tiered sample was chosen to capture both the "pastoral-analytical" perspective of spiritual leaders observing broad societal shifts and the "lived-experience" of laypeople navigating these technologies in their daily lives, from young IT engineers to disenchanted seniors. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify recurrent patterns. Key themes that emerged include: the tension between technology as a threat versus a missionary field ; the asymmetry of power between tech architects and users, likened to a game of "Mafia" where the uninformed majority is easily manipulated ; the generational divide in digital adoption and perception; and the imperative to "sanctify" technology through intentional, value-driven use rather than fearful withdrawal.

Generative AI is increasingly being integrated into education, offering transformative possibilities for both teaching and learning and tailoring educational content to the needs of individual students. We have chosen to elaborate on questions lying in the intersection of economics, linguistics and innovative engineering, aiming to benefit from automation achievable using AI. In our previous research we established methodological approaches to testing ability of Large Language Models, in particular Google Gemini and OpenAI ChatGPT, to process figurative speech and tasks in mathematics and physics defined in plain English; the present work is a solution for modelling financial projections of technological startups and competitor search. The said projections are based on an array of variables such as research and development cost, operational expenses, monthly increase of the customer count, cost of customer acquisition and so on; the input data is provided partially in numeric values and partially in the form of linguistic variables, the latter are translated into numbers (or weights) which are configurable, and modelling is done. The output of modelling is processed by a large language model to obtain a textual description in English, or any other supported language. This solution shall be used in the training of students of computer science and automation programs to help them master innovative project management and improve their business development skills. At this stage our solution relies on API-based access to 2 commercially available pretrained language model, namely, Gemini version 2.0 and OpenAI version GPT-4o, at a later stage we are considering development of our own language model. Besides, since our students are not English native speakers, generative capabilities of large language models assist them with the language barrier.

Globally, the demand for IT professionals continues to exceed supply, high-lighting the need for early, accessible, and inclusive career guidance. Tradi-tional counseling services often lack the capacity to personalize pathways in-to rapidly evolving fields such as AI, cybersecurity, and sustainable technol-ogies. To address this gap, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) de-veloped AI Career Pathfinder (AI-Pathfinder), a conversational AI system that aligns learners' interests with bachelor-level IT programs. Designed for students, adult learners, and high school teachers, the tool uses LLM-powered dialogue to help users identify suitable study options. Based on data from 479 pilot participants, the study shows how playful, conversational in-terfaces can reduce barriers to IT education while revealing hidden biases, age-related preferences, motivational differences, and technical challenges. An unexpected outcome—human-like interaction—illustrates both the promise and risks of AI-based mentoring. The paper contributes to global STEM outreach by demonstrating the dual potential and pitfalls of integrat-ing AI into career guidance.