Catholic Crosscultural Services (CCS) in Toronto and Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Edmonton are among the Canadian Catholic immigrant and refugee agencies striving to determine how artificial intelligence can be deployed to support newcomers.

Claudio Ruiz, executive director of CCS since August 2023, said he wanted to clarify to staff right away that the organization will not reduce employment opportunities as it explores how to use AI — specifically Microsoft Copilot — in its service delivery model.

“We’re looking at how we can utilize this tool so that it frees up time,” said Ruiz. “We can go from doing things that are more operational in nature to more (endeavours) that are impactful in the lives of people.

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“We could be doing more outreach with marginalized communities. We could be expanding our geographic area because now we have more time, so maybe we can send somebody to another part of the city to provide services (off-site). And we can see more clients.”

In 2025, CCS offered its suite of settlement and integration services to over 50,000 clients. Asked to project how many more immigrants and refugees can be assisted because of the extra time AI usage opens up, Ruiz said, “As many people as God allows us to serve.”

Eoin Murray, the vice president of immigration and settlement services at Edmonton's CSS, presented his thoughts about AI adoption in supporting new arrivals in Canada at the Alberta Bishops Mission Collaboration Initiative (MCI) Summit in late May. He articulated how the technology can be used to bolster communication with new Canadians.

“One of the capacities of artificial intelligence is to make some of the barriers to communication that we historically have taken for granted — language barriers being the obvious one — AI can maybe not eliminate them but reduce the amount of friction around those barriers,” said Murray.  “It can (provide) simultaneous interpretation in a whole range of different languages so that the interaction between the two human beings is enhanced and reinforced.”

CSS began piloting an AI interpretation tool called Vasco V4 in January to help any newcomer in need of counselling and support. For the first several months, CSS workers wrote scripts in different languages to test the quality of the interpretation. Within the past few weeks, the trial has graduated to being used in different client circumstances.

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“So far we've been focused on using it with clients who maybe have a little bit of English language skills and who can correct interpretation if something is off, and also those clients who are less high risk or high-needs context just so that we're not putting anyone at risk or causing any sort of jeopardy situations,” explained Murray.

He anticipates the pilot will progress into more “complex situations and circumstances” during the summer.

Murray also wants to deploy AI to assemble case notes for clients to “free up staff time to be able to focus more on client advocacy and on client supports.”

Naturally, Catholics who serve in newcomer agencies are asking the question confronting essentially every working-age adult in the world right now: what will the growth of AI mean for my employment prospects?

Murray shared the message he gave to his staff.

“If you're just doing busy work that a machine can ultimately do, it's not going to have good prospects for your job,” said Murray. “But if you were doing the things that only a human being can do, then you've marked yourself out as distinctive in the new world. I think that's true, not just in the social services sector. I think that will become true in everything.”

He anticipates that in the years to come, human work and craft will have “a certain kind of a premium that we will value it more than we value what the machines can do for us.”

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Murray studied Magnifica humanitas (“Magnificent humanity) closely upon its release. He is committed to advancing the vision and principles of human flourishing that Pope Leo XIV wrote across 42 pages of his recently released encyclical.

Ruiz said that CCS will also “guide our evolution into the use of this tool. Because we are a Catholic organization and we need to make sure that we remain faithful to the message that the Church has put out in regard to how we are meant to use this for the enhancement of the integrity of human beings.”