The Best Thing AI Can Do for Your Company? Give You More Time to Care.

There’s a question I get asked almost every week.

“What should we actually use AI for?”

The better question might be: What SHOULDN’T you be using AI for?

Because AI is incredible. It can write, summarize, brainstorm, analyze, organize, translate, research, and plan faster than any person on your team. But just because it can do something doesn’t mean it should. The companies that are going to thrive over the next decade won’t be the ones that replace people with AI. They’ll be the ones that use AI to create more opportunities to be human.

Let AI do the work.

If a task is repetitive, time-consuming, or follows a predictable process, let AI take a crack at it.

Ask it to:

• Rewrite your content.
• Summarize meetings.
• Build first drafts.
• Organize messy notes.
• Compare options.
• Find patterns in data.
• Map out problems.
• Brainstorm possible solutions.
• Turn one idea into ten.

Notice I didn’t say come up with the original idea. That’s still your job.

AI is remarkably good at remixing what’s already out there. The spark? The insight? The weird connection between two unrelated things? That’s still wonderfully human.

In other words…

Don’t ask AI what your company should care about.

Tell AI what you care about, then let it help you bring that idea to life. Don’t let AI replace your relationships.

Here’s where I get nervous.

Someone gets a thoughtful email.

AI writes the reply.

Another email comes back.

AI writes that one too.

Eventually, two computers are having a perfectly polished conversation while two people think they’re building a relationship. That’s not a relationship. That’s not progress.

If you’re sending a thank-you note… Write it. Bonus points if you handwrite it!

If a customer is frustrated…Call them. I know, a shocking recommendation in 2026!

If an employee had a big win…Celebrate them, publicly if you can.

If someone loses a loved one… Please don’t let a chatbot write the first thing they hear from you.

People can tell when they’ve been given your attention. And they can tell when they’ve been given your automation.

AI isn’t weird. (Thanks, Kelsey!)

One of the things I love most about people is that we’re wonderfully strange. We tell terrible jokes. We have odd hobbies. We laugh at the wrong time. We remember someone’s favourite coffee order. We notice when someone seems quieter than usual. We create stories.

AI can imitate all of those things. But it doesn’t experience them.

It doesn’t care. And that’s your advantage.

Here’s my rule: Use AI for the things that save you time. Spend the time you save on people.

That’s it.

Let AI organize the spreadsheet. Then take a client for coffee.

Let AI summarize the meeting. Then spend an extra fifteen minutes asking your employee how they’re really doing.

Let AI polish the blog post. Then pick up the phone and thank the person who inspired it.

The goal isn’t to become an AI-powered company. The goal is to become a more caring company because AI took care of everything else.

Because here’s what I believe.

AI might become smarter than all of us. It might become faster than all of us.

It already is.

But it’ll never notice someone sitting alone at an event. It’ll never introduce two people who should know each other. It’ll never stay late because someone needs help. It’ll never genuinely celebrate your success.

That’s still our job.

So use AI. Use lots of it.

Just don’t outsource the best parts of being human.

Those are the parts people remember.