AI is amazing. Genuinely. I use it almost every day in some form—whether it's to speed up research, brainstorm ideas, or automate routine tasks that used to take hours.
But here’s the thing: the more I use AI, the more I’m reminded of its limits.
Yes, it’s smart. Yes, it’s fast. But no—it doesn’t understand people the way people do.
In the rush to automate, optimize, and scale, I think we risk forgetting that business isn’t just a system of inputs and outputs. It’s human. Messy, emotional, intuitive. It’s someone calling you late in the day to ask for advice. It’s the feeling you get when you know something just doesn’t feel right, even if the numbers say it’s fine. It's building trust over time—not with a chatbot, but with a real person.
AI should support, not replace
I’m not anti-AI. Quite the opposite. But I’ve seen companies fall in love with automation to the point where they start removing the very people who make their business work.
- They automate customer service, but forget that frustrated customers want empathy—not efficiency.
- They automate decision-making, but overlook the subtle context behind the data.
- They automate content, but it ends up sounding like… well, like everyone else using the same tools.
The smartest companies I work with don’t just “implement AI.” They think carefully about where it makes sense and why. They use it to lift the weight off people—not to replace them. Because they know that people still make the final call. People still sign the deals. People still matter.
Don’t lose the feel
There’s a kind of “gut feeling” you get when you’ve been in your industry long enough. A sense of what works, and what doesn’t. AI doesn’t have that. It can simulate patterns, but it can’t feel the tension in a room or sense when something is off. And it definitely can’t make a tough decision that weighs logic against values or experience.
So yes—use AI. Embrace it. Automate the boring stuff. Speed up the repetitive. But don’t lose the human part in the process. Because at the end of the day, businesses don’t trade with algorithms. They trade with people.
And people still want to do business with people.