How AI & Mindfulness Will Clash (& Combine) In 2025

AI and minfulness might seem like completely opposing forces. However, whilst AI has the ability to make us question our reality, it can also be harnessed to optimise our practice. So, how will AI and mindfulness clash and combine in 2025?

Are we losing our grip on reality?

We all saw what Ye said and we all know it was awful. And, as if the saga wasn’t depressing enough, actress Scarlett Johansson, alongside other Jewish A-listers, have been featured in AI deepfake videos denouncing Ye’s antisemitic tirade without their consent.

In the video, Johansson can be seen wearing a t-shirt sporting the Star of David, the middle finger and the word “Kanye”. Johansson has since released a statement that, despite being a Jewish woman with no tolerance for hate speech, she is deeply concerned about AI being used to multiply hate speech.

Her concern is valid.

If you can use someone’s likeness to make deepfake videos denouncing racism then you can just as easily make them to promote it. She went on to say that AI’s misuse must be called out or we will risk “losing hold on reality”.

Reality. Does it even have the same meaning as it did in 2024?

The AI explosion presents a fascinating paradox to the future of reality, mental health and mindfulness. In 2025, AI and mindfulness will clash to provoke an existentialist questioning of reality whilst simultaneously combining to help us become more grounded.

So, how will these two opposing concepts maintain a precarious relationship in the year (and years) to come?

The clash: questioning our reality

Anyone with a social media account has likely come across an AI-generated deepfake by now. Perhaps they didn’t even know it, and took that previously-unearthed video of their favourite celebrity doing the WAP dance challenge as gospel, despite the comment section stating the contrary.

Or, perhaps they saw something more sinister, something that was able to change their opinion about a particular person or group. This is why there is an increasing concern that the misuse of AI will cloud our concept of reality and create existential problems for billions of people across the world.

And this concern isn’t limited to our socials, either. Everywhere we go we are constantly reminded of how AI can step into our shoes and mess with our understanding of the real and the contrived. From self-driving cars, to shelf-stacking androids, we are constantly being reminded that a robot can do what we thought we did best.

This can lead to questions like, “what are we here for?’ and “will we be superseded?” These existential questions can, unfortunately, contribute to ominous feelings of dread and hopelessness. Nobody wants an existential crisis in the chocolate aisle, but AI’s ability to make us question our reality can leave us dropping our Cadbury in a moment of existential terror.

It’s a grim downside of the current “reality”, but it’s not all doom and gloom, as AI can also help us personalise our mindfulness practice in previously unimaginable ways.

The combination: optimising mindfulness

Thankfully, when we get home from our middle-of-the-aisle existential crises, we will have highly-personalised mindfulness apps to help calm our nerves. Mindfulness apps - like any other tech product - can benefit from AI to optimise their service and personalise them to our specific needs.

Mindfulness apps will be able to benefit from machine learning to provide personalised guidance whilst adapting to the practitioner’s needs in real-time. AI will also be able to analyse the practitioner's mood, stress indicators and meditation patterns to provide a holistic approach to their mindfulness practice.

Practitioners will be invited to provide live feedback which will shape their practice and curate specialised guided meditations to suit their needs in that moment and for future mental health. What’s more, mindfulness apps will be able to benefit from real-time AI chat that will answer a practitioner’s concerns about their health or practice.

But the really amazing advancement for mindfulness apps is the way they will be able to recognise our facial expressions, speech patterns and voice tone to understand your mood. Using this information, your app will be able to personalise your practice whilst providing reminders of why and when we should practice.

A pragmatic paradox?

Most of us have experienced some sort of existential dread regarding the AI explosion. It’s hard not to feel a sense of the dystopian when you see footage of robotic law enforcement or a video that looks just real but there is just something off about it.

But that’s not to negate the benefits that AI will bring to mindfulness practice. Like other fields, the ethical use of AI will be paramount to ensuring an optimised service that is customised to our mental health needs.

This is why AI and mindfulness will become something of a pragmatic paradox. It will help us quell our concerns through intelligent machine learning and the ability to personalise our practice.

The future of tech may be uncertain, but the practice is steadfast, and can be harnessed to achieve equilibrium in these hyperfuturised times.