Whatif… The Answer to AI is More Human?

I’m sitting at an interesting intersection today.

Lately, I’ve been actively thinking about how we can make leadership development more impactful, more sustainable, and more aligned with the current needs of people in organizations.

At the same time, several conversations and pieces of writing are making their way to my inbox. So maybe my Reticular Activation System is simply on high alert for these ideas. Or perhaps many of us are thinking in the same space right now.

One piece comes from my friend Miranda Holder, leadership coach and founder of Holder Leadership. In a recent post, she explores how we can cultivate greater self-trust. Her argument is that as AI becomes increasingly capable, our ability to trust ourselves becomes even more important. AI may provide us with endless information and even help us construct knowledge, but self-trust develops something different: our inner knowing.

Miranda also connects this idea to the distinction between knowledge and wisdom. Technology can store information and help us process knowledge, but wisdom remains deeply human. I’m struck by how important the human becomes in this scenario.

The second comes from my friend LaTonya Wilkins, founder of Changes Coaches. In her newsletter, LaTonya describes a friend whom she knew to be driven and goal oriented and very work focused. After losing their job this person shifted and became more inclusive, calmer, and focused less on “What am I doing?” and more on “Who am I?”.

LaTonya suggests that we are entering The Human Age and that we will see more self-authorship, community, hope, trust, courage, and presence.

And then there is a third influence that just came to mind as I was writing this! I recently started reading Sal Khan’s Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing). Khan explores the upside of AI, especially LLMs, and how we can thoughtfully create structures that actually increase learning, especially by meeting more people where they are in the learning process.

What stands out to me from reading his book is the potential to engage with LLMs in ways that don’t replace educators or facilitators, but rather enhance what humans can do.

Taken together, I find myself wondering:

Whatif… Delving deeper into our humanity is exactly what we need right now?

I don’t mean to dismiss all of the technological, scientific, and other logistical innovations that continue to improve our lives. Rather, I wonder if this moment calls us to double down on what makes us uniquely human.

What might that look like?

It starts (like many things) with developing our self-awareness. Not just the “do I know my own values” type of self-awareness, which is definitely important and much needed in a world where our choices seem endless. But the awareness of our emotional states and reactions. Awareness of our impact on others. Awareness of our thinking - research strongly suggests that metacognition, the ability to think about our own thinking, is one of the most important skills we can be developing right now.

It also means recognizing our organizations (home, work, etc.) as the complex adaptive systems that they are. In these systems, certainty an control are often an illusion. Change emerges and we can’t treat change like a lever we pull, but like an experiment we run to collect data. Learning to navigate change, loss, transformation, or any other form of movement with grace and intention has the potential to make our impact greater and our experience of living much more pleasant.

Finally, I think it means tapping into our uniqueness even more than ever. What does the complex bundle of atoms and energy that make up any given person have to offer the world? What lights us up and makes us better versions of ourselves? Recently, I find myself alert to the messaging that I shouldn’t try to create the “AI polished version” of something (whether that’s a bio, a website, a paper, a piece of art). Rather we want to see the “Uniquely You” version of whatever it is you are creating.

Whatif… leaning into the messiness and beauty of humanity is what we need now more than ever?

Maybe this is what will help to create even more innovative technology and even more healthy relationships.

Let’s not ignore the human animal amidst all of the technological innovations. It’s accomplished remarkable things so far; perhaps even greater things are on the horizon if we give it the respect and attention it deserves.