Some psychics are making a promise that has little to do with predicting the future: clients will receive a reading from a real person, not a chatbot.
Readings could continue even while a practitioner sleeps under one startup's plan to have psychics train AI copies of themselves to serve customers.
Here's what to know
Human practitioners are pushing back against round-the-clock AI readings by emphasizing personal connection and rejecting automated services, according to Digital Trends.
Intuitive insight and rapport with clients should be selling points for spiritual business owners, psychic and coach Lauryn Kellett argued in April 2025, per Digital Trends.
She considers those qualities distinctly human.
However, Psychic Vision has taken a more direct approach.
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In its app listing and on its website, the service rules out automated readings and offers access to a human reader. Its Google Play listing shows more than 100,000 downloads.
Whether anyone can predict the future remains unresolved, even with a guarantee that the reader is human.
More background
Not all tarot practitioners oppose the technology.
Research referenced by Digital Trends, presented at CHI 2026, drew on interviews with 12 practitioners who had used AI to read for themselves.
They cited seeking a challenge to their preconceptions and gaining confidence in their own interpretations as reasons for consulting chatbots.
Recruitment itself encountered resistance; some moderators refused to help find participants because the topic was AI. Participants described anti-AI sentiment within tarot circles, along with fears that using the tools could weaken their intuition.
The profession as a whole cannot be characterized from interviews with this small group of people who already used AI.
For one participant, a card slipping out of a deck offered a way to understand chatbot hallucinations, or fabricated outputs: Both could be random events with significance.
Beyond concerns about unreliable responses, psychic or otherwise, AI readings depend on computing infrastructure connected to the energy grid.
While AI could help optimize clean energy systems, running the technology requires an immense amount of electricity and involves substantial water use for cooling.
What's being done?
MysticTwin is taking a different approach by enlisting psychics to develop virtual counterparts, Digital Trends noted.
The digital doubles could interact with clients while practitioners are offline, providing an additional revenue stream without requiring humans to conduct every conversation.
The company's website commits to identifying AI-based conversations. Choosing a particular psychic's profile would not necessarily guarantee communicating with that person.
Psychic Vision's promise of a live person and MysticTwin's proposed AI disclosure describe different purchases.
MysticTwin continues to promote a future debut rather than an established operating service.
The company says its take would be half of the proceeds generated by its AI counterparts' conversations.
Where can I learn more?
Psychics aren't the only ones pushing back on automation or questioning whether a conversation partner is human.
• OpenAI fired contractors hired to make ChatGPT more human after they used AI themselves.
• Tavus says nearly half of users mistook its AI for humans, raising concerns about simulated interactions.
• A New York library's Bye Bye AI event went viral for helping people avoid AI features.
• Small businesses are rejecting AI-generated marketing, drawing viral attention with hand-drawn signs instead.
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