Human Connection + AI
Everyone is racing to remove humans. That is exactly why you should not.
Quick note before today’s post: My free course, Cowork Mondays. Zero to Claude Cowork in Six Weeks, is up and running! The feedback has been positive, and I’m so glad it’s helping people dip their toes into the waters of agentic AI. You know, AI that “does stuff” for us. If you’re curious, check it out!
Two vignettes:
Vignette 1
This is an email we received at kitchen & bath CRATE last month.
This customer wrote a 554-word email naming nearly 30 team members.
She did that because those 30 people had an impact. They created a human connection.
It was more than a remodel.
Vignette 2
A few months back, we completed a bathroom remodel.
During the initial meeting, our customer brought up how sad her adult daughters would be to see their dated 1990s shower tile go.
The tile was out of date, but it held meaning for those women. It was a memorable part of their childhood home.
I have similar memories of foil and felt wallpaper, no joke, in my own childhood home.
Daniel, the sales professional working with them, remembered that aside weeks later at the Design Meeting. “What if we harvest a few of these old tiles and work them discreetly into the design?”
The homeowner loved it.
Fast forward. Job done. The daughters come home for a visit.
On the back of a return wall in the shower, where no one would see them unless they were standing right there, two tiles from the original shower were expertly worked into the new design.
The daughters teared up when they saw them.
Part of their childhood home didn’t have to live in memory alone.
That is human connection; making a magic moment.
Losing Connection
The “invisible hand of capitalism” is moving us away from human connection in commerce:
Online shopping
Self-checkout
Driverless taxis
AI answering systems
Phone support that makes you press an endless series of numbers
It makes sense on paper. Human interaction requires humans. And humans require a paycheck, can be difficult to manage, get sick, and sue you.
It is easier and more profitable to move away from humans.
And herein lies the opportunity: human connection with the AI in the background.
I think the most successful companies of the next 10 years will operate on this premise:
Fantastic human connection on the front end, facing the customer. Sophisticated AI behind the scenes, running the machine.
I liken it to cars.
The F1 car: all performance, nothing else. Miserable to sit in, impossible to get in and out of, and terrible on a regular road. This is the AI-replacing-humans company.
The old beater: basically technology-free. Pleasant, but always breaking down. Comfortable yet unreliable. This is the anti-AI, we-just-don’t-understand-it company.
The luxury sedan: beautiful, smooth, the satisfying “clunk” of the door shutting, whisper quiet at 80 miles per hour. Real comfort built on engineering perfection. This is the human-forward, AI-in-the-background company.
Which car do you want your business to be?
Taking Action
Three steps to building human connection on top of an AI foundation:
Define your ideal customer profile. Get embarrassingly specific about the one customer you are building for. (At kbCRATE, our ideal customer is a female homeowner between 40 and 70 with disposable income, a household income between $150,000 and $250,000, who is not a DIYer and not overly frugal, who values organization and delegation, and who holds high but reasonable standards. See: quite specific!)
Find the moment that is slipping away. Where should a human be showing up for your customer, and is not, usually because your people are buried in friction?
Point the AI machine at that exact friction. Not to replace the human moment. To protect it. Free your people up to show up.
It is not hard to think of these moments. It is hard to execute them consistently. Consistency is the machine’s job.
Wrap Up
When everyone is heading toward fewer connections, maybe that is the time to be different with more.
The companies that win will figure out how to free their people up to create magic moments.
The future will be turbulent, so buckle up.
But first, decide what car you are getting into.
As always, if you’d like to chat about topics like this, I’m here for you: scott@scottmonday.com.
This week’s YouTube video is a story about how I personally set one of our companies back by 9 months through poor leadership. Ugh. That’s hard to write. But it’s true… Check it out!
Things I've Enjoyed Lately: When we start a new project at TBS, we bring the field and management staff a gift box. Hands down, the favorite item within has been a customized Yeti tumbler. Shout out to my friend Kacie for showing me this. The tumblers have the logo laser-etched, and they look great. Everybody loves swag they’ll actually use. Check out Yeti customizations if you want something like this.