Keeping The Human Touch in a World of AI

By Derek Olsen

Solutions Advisor

Boomer Consulting, Inc.

AI is no longer coming.

It’s here.

I’ve had several conversations with friends, clients, co-workers and family members about if and how AI is having an impact on their job. A real impact, not just talk.

It is. It’s real and it’s not going anywhere.

A friend of mine who has been writing and testing code at one of the largest healthcare software companies in the world for 23 years put it this way.

“We had a piece of code with errors and decided to run it through our AI systems, ask it to find the broken code, fix it, and re-write the code for us. It did it in a matter of minutes. We tested the new code and it was perfect. We’ve been told to lean heavily on AI. AI is now writing code for us, we are just building the workflows and feeding it prompts, then testing and asking for any changes which it does for us. The progress in the last 12 months has been unbelievable.”

Is AI taking my job?

With the example above I asked further questions like, “So is this going to eliminate your job?” The answer is tricky, my friend said you still need an enormous amount of coding and software creation knowledge to get the AI to do what you want it to do. He said it would be impossible to “vibe-code” this part of the coding world. It’s changing the way he approaches his job. So in a way yes, it’s taking his job and giving him another.

Where are the humans?

We’re still here. And I believe we always will be.

Work will look different for some of us. It looks different every 20 years anyway and in a way the AI shift is no different. Humans are still figuring out how to build and use the tools, just like always.

It’s my opinion that these changes make human connection even more important. When the environment changes so quickly there is an emotional response. A response that AI isn’t going to be able to help us with, even with the supposed AI counselors and emotional feedback agents. When things change and survival is on the line, Humans tend to stick together and combine forces to protect the hurd. We still need and will always need to be in the same room, have face-to-face conversations, exchange information, and discuss how to navigate the changing landscape.

All We Need Is Each Other

One time when my daughter was sick with a cold and there wasn’t anything else to do but rest and ride it out for a few days, she said something I’ll never forget. She gave me a hug and said, “Sometimes all we need is each other.”

She’s right.

Speaking of needing each other. Our peer communities are growing. That’s right. Growing. Professionals are leaning on, learning from, and supporting each other even more in the new world of AI.

In person, face-to-face conversations are more important than ever. When it comes to AI, some people are excited, some are scared, some are nervous, and some don’t know what to think. In each case, we look to each other for cues, thoughts, ideas, and to validate these feelings. We look to each other to balance things out.

120 firms, 310 memberships, 11 peer communities, roughly 1500 flights to and from our events each year all for one purpose. To connect with, lean on, support, and learn from each other. The numbers don’t lie. Firms are putting their money where their mouth is. The RIO of connecting with Humans in a trusted environment remains an important investment.

AI is one of the biggest topics of conversations at all eleven of our circles. But it’s not the only topic. Even in this new world of AI we still need to recruit top talent, train and develop them for the future. We still need clear processes, quality control, and well run operations. We still need change management to help us transition. We still need healthy client relationships. We still need leadership we can trust.

And we still need face-to-face human conversations to get all of this done. Which is exactly what we provide to our circle members.

Everyone is trying to predict what the next 5, 10, 50 years will look like. No one will get it exactly right. Go back 5, 10, 50 years at the predictions people made about today, and there’s your answer. We don’t know.

One thing is true, we will build whatever is coming together. We will lean on each other for support, answers, and encouragement. Navigating what is coming is too large and complex to tackle alone.

Sometimes, all we need is each other.