I was at a friend’s 50th birthday party yesterday.
As you do, I spent a lot of the time catching up with people I hadn’t seen for a while. And when the inevitable question came up, “So, what are you doing these days?”, something surprised me.
Multiple conversation turned straight to AI.
People are genuinely concerned.
Jobs. Safety. Security. What happens next.
I don’t have a crystal ball, and I certainly wouldn’t claim to be an AI expert.
But after several decades in technology, thousands of client meetings, hundreds of projects and countless conversations with people trying to solve difficult problems, there’s one thing I keep coming back to.
AI may have extraordinary IQ.
It can perform tasks in seconds that would take a human days.
It can generate thousands of lines of code, create images, analyse enormous amounts of data and propose solutions at a speed and scale we struggle to comprehend.
Its capabilities will only increase.
But what about EQ?
Looking someone in the eyes.
Noticing the body language that says something different from the words being spoken.
Realising that the person who has said “yes” three times still isn’t convinced.
Knowing when to challenge someone, and when not to.
Feeling the atmosphere change in a meeting.
Understanding the history, relationships and personalities behind a problem.
Technology may become incredibly sophisticated at detecting heart rate, skin temperature, eye movement and voice inflection. It may become remarkably good at interpreting human emotion.
But interpreting signals isn’t the same thing as being human.
And that’s why I don’t believe humans are “dead” in the workplace.
Far from it.
The technology will change. Roles will change. Some tasks will disappear and entirely new ones will emerge.
But there will continue to be enormous value in the human-to-human interface.
Trust.
Relationships.
Empathy.
Judgement.
Communication.
Perhaps the future isn’t about competing with AI on IQ.
Perhaps it’s about becoming much better at the things that make us human.
MK1.0 Human still has plenty of life left in it.